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3  TACK 

ANNEX 


OF 


CORNISH  GRAMMAR 


BY 


EDWIN    NORRIS. 


O  X  F  O  11  D  : 

\T    THE    UNIVERSITY    PRESS, 
il.DCCC.LTX. 


SKETCH 


OF 


CORNISH  GRAMMAR 


BY 

EDWIN    NORRIS. 


OXFORD: 

AT    THE    UNIVERSITY    PRESS. 
M.DCCC.LIX. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


LETTERS    3 

ARTICLES 12 

SUBSTANTIVES   12 

ADJECTIVES     22 

NUMBERS      23 

PRONOUNS    26 

VERBS 41 

IRREGULARS    66 

ADVERBS    73 

PREPOSITIONS    80 

CONJUNCTIONS 86 

CONSTRUCTION  89 


2047388 


INTRODUCTORY  NOTE. 


THE  following  Grammatical  Sketch  of  the  Corn- 
ish language  is  made  up  of  the  observations  jotted 
down  by  the  Compiler,  whilst  engaged  in  preparing 
a  translation  of  the  three  ancient  Cornish  Dramas 
entitled  Ordinalia,  contained  in  a  Manuscript  belong- 
ing to  the  Bodleian  Library.  After  a  considerable 
portion  of  that  work  was  printed  off,  he  was  induced 
to  arrange  his  notes  in  some  order,  for  the  purpose 
of  adding  them  to  the  book  as  an  appendix,  and  by 
doing  this  he  found  himself  empowered  to  see  fur- 
ther into  the  structure  of  the  language  than  he 
anticipated,  and  to  understand  many  passages 
which  he  had  left  as  unintelligible ;  he  discovered 
regularity  in  many  cases  where  he  had  supposed 
that  all  was  disorder,  and  found  that  much  of  the 
apparent  confusion  arose  from  the  entire  absence  of 
any  system  of  orthography. 

From  the  way  in  which  this  essay  was  compiled, 
it  is  obvious  that  all  illustrations  of  rules  given  in 
it  are  drawn  from  the  work  alluded  to,  except 
only  in  the  very  few  cases  where  the  Mount  Cal- 
vary has  furnished  data  for  completing  the  evi- 
dence which  the  Ordinalia  would  have  left  imper- 
fect. It  is  also  a  consequence  of  this  way  of  pro- 
ceeding that  a  form  or  a  construction  of  frequent 
occurrence  is  often  elucidated  by  a  single  example, 
while  a  rarer  case  will  be  furnished  with  several 
instances  hi  proof,  perhaps  all  that  the  compiler 
could  find;  in  the  former  case  there  could  be  no 


2 

reason  for  hesitation,  and  consequently  no  motive 
for  accumulating  evidence ;  in  the  latter,  infre- 
quency  produced  doubt,  which  could  not  be  re- 
moved without  collating  all  the  cases  in  point. 

It  is  necessary  to  bear  in  mind  that,  during 
the  whole  work  of  translation,  the  process  was 
tentative.  The  translator  fully  acknowledges  the 
valuable  aid  he  has  received  from  the  grammar  of 
Lhuyd  and  the  vocabulary  compiled  by  Tonkin, 
which  appeared  under  the  name  of  Pryce  ;  without 
them  he  could  have  done  nothing  ;  but  he  must 
say  that  his  suspicion  of  the  accuracy  of  these  aids, 
of  the  vocabulary  especially,  was  continually  on  the 
increase ;  and  that  until  he  had  found  a  word  j  usti- 
fied  by  frequent  repetition  and  obvious  congruity, 
he  never  felt  confident  in  the  value  affixed  to  it, 
unless  it  were  corroborated  by  Welsh  or  Armoric 
analogy. 

The  Grammar  was  more  satisfactory,  but  it  was 
chiefly  based  on  the  practice  of  Cornish  as  spoken 
in  Lhuyd's  day,  a  dialect  which  had  lost  much  of 
the  character  of  the  old  language  in  which  the  best 
monuments  were  written ;  it  was  also  slightly  mo- 
dified by  the  habit  of  the  author,  who  unconsciously 
deviated  now  and  then  into  the  forms  of  his  native 
Welsh. 

After  these  observations,  the  compiler  believes 
he  may  offer  this  Essay  as  a  useful  help  to  a 
reader  of  Cornish ;  he  is  quite  conscious  that  it  is 
incomplete,  but  he  trusts  that  what  is  included  in  it 
will  not  be  found  inaccurate. 


SKETCH  OF  COKNISH  GEAMMAR 


§.1.  LETTERS. 

The  orthography  of  the  manuscripts  is  so  irre- 
gular, that  it  is  quite  impracticable,  in  a  gram- 
matical essay,  to  follow  it  into  all  its  varieties ;  we 
find  every  word  of  any  length  written  in  half  a 
dozen  forms,  such  as  diuath,  deweth,  dyweth, 
devyth,  dyvyth,  diweth,  &c.  &c. ;  and  so  short  a 
word  as  kig  is  found  under  the  forms  of  kyg,  kyc, 
kic,  cyk,  and  probably  more.  It  appears  advisable 
in  this  sketch  to  keep  to  one  form  only,  and  the 
one  selected  will  be  that  which  most  commonly 
occurs ;  if  this  be  doubtful,  then  the  form  most 
analogous  to  the  Welsh  or  Breton.  The  writer  of 
the  Dramas  was  guided  merely  by  his  ear,  which 
was  variable,  and  in  addition  to  this,  he  was  un- 
decided whether  he  should  follow  the  English  or 
Welsh  sounds  of  the  letters.  Very  frequently  too 
the  handwriting  is  uncertain ;  and  nothing  but  a 
knowledge  of  the  language  will  enable  a  reader  to 
distinguish  between  c  and  t,  u  and  n,  b  and  v,  and 
some  others. 

For  this  reason  it  seems  most  expedient  first  to 
give  a  list  of  the  sounds  of  the  language,  and  then 
to  shew  how  they  are  expressed  in  the  manu- 
scripts; to  adopt,  as  above  stated,  one  form  only, 
but  in  quotations,  to  follow  the  original  spelling  in 
all  its  variety. 

§.2.   Vowels. 

The  vowel  sounds  were  a,  e,  i,  o,  u,  and  aw. 
The  last  was  like  our  a  in  '  all,'  a  sound  hardly 
B  2 


4  CORNISH  GRAMMAR. 

known  in  most  European  tongues ;  the  others  as 
in  Italian. 

A,  as  in  'father/  is  always  made  by  a  in  the  MS. 
E,  as  in  e  there/  always  by  e.  I,  as  our  ee,  is  gene- 
rally written  y,  rarely  i,  and  now  and  then  e,  espe- 
cially in  the  pronoun  my,  which  is  often  written 
me,  no  doubt  from  the  influence  of  English  ortho- 
graphy ;  in  this  grammar  y  is  used.  0  and  u  are 
generally  so  written.  Aw  is,  I  think,  always 
written  o. 

Lhuyd,  who  wrote  when  the  language  was  spoken, 
adopted  a  turned  upside  down  to  express  the  sound 
of  aw ;  he  thus  wrote  mnz  where  we  find  mos.  We 
have  hos,  O  132,  "a  duck,"  which  he  would  have 
written  hvz ;  it  is  hoet  in  the  ancient  vocabulary, 
and  those  who  spelled  the  word  by  ear  wrote  hawz; 
see  Pryce,  voc.  hoet.  It  does  not  appear  that  aw 
and  o  were  etymologically  distinguished,  any  more 
than  the  vowels  in  the  English  words  fall  and  hot ; 
and  as  in  the  majority  of  cases  it  would  now  be 
difficult  to  decide  which  sound  was  used,  no  attempt 
is  made  here  to  represent  it  by  a  distinct  character. 

§.  3.  The  vowels  are  liable  to  a  modification 
which  the  Germans,  after  Grimm,  call  "  umlaut ;" 
a  change  which  brings  the  different  syllables  of  a 
word  into  harmony  with  each  other.  It  is  defined 
as  an  inflection  of  a,  o,  and  w,  in  the  radical  syl- 
lable of  a  word,  caused  by  the  influence  or  attrac- 
tion of  an  i  or  u  in  a  subsequent  servile  syllable 
expressed  or  understood  ;  a  becoming  e,  o  becom- 
ing o,  (the  French  eu]  and  u  becoming  u  (the 
French  u).  It  is  such  an  influence  which  makes 
fed  out  of  f  ado  in  Latin,  &ndfeet,  men,  and  elder, 
out  of  foot,  man,  old,  in  English.  In  Cornish  this 
law  was  strictly  observed,  though  the  unsettled  or- 
thography produced  much  irregularity  in  its  ex- 


VOWELS.  5 

pression.  I  think  the  following  rule  will  conveni- 
ently shew  its  practical  operation : — whenever  a 
word  with  a  or  e  for  its  final  vowel  (and  sometimes 
the  influence  reaches  a  preceding  vowel)  receives 
by  grammatical  change  the  addition  of  a  syllable 
whose  vowel  is  i  (y)  or  eu,  the  a  becomes  e  or  y, 
and  the  e  becomes  y :  thus  from  car,  "  to  love,"  is 
made  kyrys,  "  loved,"  R  892,  and  kyrreugh,  "  ye 
love,"  O  543 ;  from  taw,  "to  be  silent/'  comes 
teweugh,  "  be  ye  silent,"  E,  669,  and  tywyn,  "  we 
are  silent,"  R  2527 :  from  gwel,  "  to  see,"  gwylsyn, 
"  we  saw,"  E,  807  :  from  guas,  "  a  lad,"  guesyon, 
"lads,"  D  1299.  The  letter  e,  in  fact,  is  neutral, 
and  may  stand  either  for  a  or  y :  thus  we  find 
kerry,  D  2240,  kyrry,  O  537,  or  kyry,  D  1289, 
"  thou  mayest  love ;"  lavaraf,  07,  or  levaraf, 
0  1653,  "  I  say."  Even  English  words  receive  the 
same  modifications;  as  from  handle,  D  3194,  we 
have  hyndlyf,  R  1531.  0  and  u  sometimes  re- 
main unaltered,  but  are  more  commonly  changed  to 
e;  as  from  danfon,  "  to  send,"  danfeneugh,  "  send," 
Ri%594;  from  torr, "  to  break,"  der&,  "will  break,"  O 
2 1 84 ;  from  cous, " to  speak,"  keus,  "speaks,"  01676; 
from  curene,  "  to  crown,"  D  2064,  we  find  kerenys, 
0  2381,  kerunys,  O  2391,  and  kurenys  in  a  variant 
reading  of  0  2374 ;  the  difficulty  of  distinguishing 
e  from  o  in  the  manuscript  will  not  let  me  cite 
koroneugh  of  O  2347  as  a  still  further  change ; 
arluth,  "lord,"  makes  in  the  plural  arlythy,  D 
1900. 

A  termination  in  a  does  not  change  a  root  with 
a  vowel  y;  from  pys,  "  to  pray,"  we  have  pysaf,  "  I 
pray,"  0 1390 ;  but  losco  from  lesky  occurs  in  R 130- 

a  In  some  former  state  of  the  language  this  form  must 
have  had  a  final  »',•  it  still  remains  in  the  Irish  verb. 


CORNISH  GRAMMAR. 


§.4.  Consonants. 

The  consonantal  sounds  are  6,  d,  th  (as  in  '  the'), 
f,  g  hard,  g  soft,  h,  k,  I,  m,  n,  p,  r,  s,  sh,  ch,  t,  th 
(as  in  'think'),  v,  w,  wh,  z.  Of  these  sounds  b,  d,f 
h,  I,  m,  n,  p,  r,  s,  t,  are  written  in  the  MSS.  regu- 
larly with  the  letters  above  given. 

Th,  as  in  the  English  '  the,'  is  always  so  written 
in  the  manuscript  of  the  Ordinalia.  It  is  the 
aspirate  form  of  d,  and  in  "Welsh  is  made  by  dd ; 
in  the  British  Museum  MS.  of  Mount  Calvary, 
and  in  the  Bodleian  MS.  of  the  Creation,  written 
in  1611,  it  is  made  by  a  character  not  unlike  3 ; 
those  who  wrote  Cornish  in  its  last  days  repre- 
sented the  sound  by  dh,  and  in  the  very  ancient 
Cornish  vocabulary  the  same  combination  is  used ; 
for  example,  in  the  word  medhec,  "  a  physician." 
The  Armoric  equivalent  is  0.  I  would  have  written 
dh  in  this  grammar,  if  I  had  always  been  sure  of 
distinguishing  the  two  sounds  of  th,  but  as  this  is 
not  the  case,  I  write  th;  a  mistake  seems  of  less 
consequence  when  indicated  by  a  mere  dot ;  and 
moreover  this  form  is  a  smaller  departure  from  the 
orthography  of  the  Ordinalia.  But  I  have  no  doubt 
that  I  have  often  omitted  the  dot  when  it  ought 
to  be  inserted. 

G,  as  in  '  gold,'  is  so  written  in  the  MSS.  Lhuyd 
used  the  Saxon  5  to  distinguish  this  sound  from  the 
following.  It  is  now  and  then  irregularly  employed 
as  an  initial  instead  of  d,  as  in  geyth,  "a  day," 
039,  instead  of  dyth,  O  49. 

6r  soft,  as  in  '  gentle,1  is  not  a  genuine  Cornish 
letter,  but  a  simple  corruption  of  s  ;  we  thus  find 
pygy,  "  to  pray,"  and  gage,  "  to  leave,"  instead  of 


CONSONANTS.  7 

pysy  and  gase.  It  is  like  the  vulgarism  of  squeege 
for  squeeze.  Lhuyd  sometimes  used  dzh  for  this 
sound,  a  clumsy  but  accurate  representation.  I 
have  no  occasion  to  mention  the  sound  in  this 
essay. 

H  is  etymologically  equivalent  to  the  Welsh  ch ; 
it  is  the  aspirate  form  of  k.  Colon,  "  heart,"  be- 
comes holon,  O  2135,  and  cowethes,  "a  compan- 
ion," becomes  howethes,  0  113.  When  final,  it  is 
almost  always  made  by  gh,  as  in  levereugh,  "  you 
say,11  D  781,  the  Welsh  lafarwch. 

K  is  made  in  the  MSS.,  as  in  English,  by  c  be- 
fore consonants  and  a,  o,  and  w,  and  by  k  before  e, 
i,  and  y.  Thus  car,  "  he  loves,"  caradow,  "  be- 
loved,11 O  1114,  kerry,  "thou  lovest,11  O  2142; 
cref,  "  strong,11  D  2539,  O  2222.  Now  and  then 
we  find  irregularities  in  this  usage ;  as  in  cemeres 
for  kemeres,  0  1123;  krev  for  cref,  0  687 ;  cen  for 
ken,  D  1994. 

There  appears  to  be  a  trace  of  the  Welsh  aspi- 
rate II,  if  I  am  right  in  supposing  Behethlen, 
0  2588,  to  be  Bohellan ;  to  this  I  was  led  by  the 
equivalent  Beheath-land,  given  in  Pryce's  list  of 
Cornish  villages ;  thl  might  be  an  attempt  to  re- 
present the  peculiar  sound  of  the  Welsh  II. 

No  trace  appears  of  the  curious  change  of  m 
and  n  to  bm  and  tin,  the  latter  of  which  is  so  com- 
mon in  names  of  places  in  Cornwall,  and  in  the 
more  recent  MS.  of  the  '  Creation/  It  must  have 
crept  in  between  1450  and  1600,  though  it  may 
have  existed  in  speaking  at  an  earlier  date. 

The  sound  of  s  was  probably  like  that  of  the 
English  s,  varying  to  that  of  z  when  between 
vowels,  as  in  '  rose.1  It  is  this  last  sound  which  I  sup- 
pose to  be  occasionally  corrupted  to  g,  as  mentioned 
before.  Sh  occurs  in  English  words  only,  and  is 


8  CORNISH   GRAMMAR. 

written  sch  or  sh ;  see  sheft,  O  2494,  schapys, 
0  2562. 

7%,  as  in  '  think,'  is  always  so  written  in  this 
Grammar ;  it  is  the  aspirate  form  of  t,  as  th  is  of  d. 
The  frequent  use  of  th  instead  of  s  shews  that 
the  sound  was  not  so  definite  as  in  English ;  we 
have  grath,  0  6,  instead  of  gras,  "  grace ;  fath 
for  the  English  face,  0  1412;  cowys,  R  405,  and 
cowyth,  R  410 ;  sacrifyth,  O  1519,  and  sacryfys, 
O  1493.  I11  Natharet,  D  301,  for  Nazareth,  the 
th  is  probably  intended.  The  equivalent  sound  has 
become  a  pure  sibilant  in  Armoric,  and  is  written  z. 

Ch  is  an  English  sound,  and  is  used  in  words 
borrowed  from  English,  as  chacys,  "chased,"  0 
706;  cherite,  "charity,"  0  1782;  cher,  "cheer." 
D  1824;  chyf,  "chief,"  0  2331.  The  sound  must 
have  occurred  in  one  genuine  Celtic  word  chy, 
"  a  house,"  which  is  written  with  a  t  in  all  other 
Celtic  languages.  Ty  is  found  in  the  ancient  vo- 
cabulary, but  I  think  chy  everywhere  else.  In  D 
334,  if  ow  thy  be  the  true  reading,  we  have  a 
genuine  case  of  ty  with  the  proper  mutation ;  but 
the  dimculty  of  distinguishing  c  from  t  renders  it 
uncertain.  Ch  frequently  occurs  in  the  ancient 
vocabulary  where  k  is  intended. 

The  sound  of  v  is  generally  represented  by  that 
letter,  but  it  is  also  found  not  unfrequently  ex- 
pressed by/",  as  in  Welsh ;  unmistakeable  instances 
of  this  &re  fenygough,  "ye  bless,"  D  2646 ;  fynnaf, 
"  I  will,"  D  2496 ;  ynfras,  "  greatly,"  R  1098. 

W  appears  to  have  had  the  English  sound  ;  it  is 
not  unfrequently  confounded  with  u,  particularly 
after  g. 

Wh  represents  the  Welsh  chw,  but  it  is  often 
confounded  with  w ;  as  in  ivhylly,  D  2101,  wylly, 
O  745,  "  thou  mayest  see." 


MUTATIONS   OF  CONSONANTS.        9 

The  consonantal  sound  of  y  is  made  usually  by  i, 
and  sometimes  by  a  character  frequently  read  z, 
but  certainly  sounded  y.  We  have  such  a  character 
in  old  English  MSS.,  where  we  find  zoung,  zear, 
sou ;  it  is  often  so  printed  in  transcripts,  but  the 
propriety  of  so  transcribing  is  doubtful. 

Z  is  not  written,  but  is  represented  by  s,  as  men- 
tioned before.  In  one  case  alone  have  I  found  it, 
0  2358  ;  see  the  note  on  that  line. 


§.  5.  Mutations  of  Consonants. 

In  all  the  Celtic  languages,  many  of  the  conso- 
nants at  the  beginning  of  a  word  suffer  changes 
according  to  fixed  rules,  under  certain  grammatical 
or  euphonic  conditions.  In  most  of  these  changes 
the  Cornish  coincides  with  the  Welsh,  in  a  few  it 
is  more  like  the  Armoric ;  the  fourth  form,  or  nasal 
change  of  the  Welsh,  is  unknown.  The  surds  p, 
k,  and  t,  have  each  two  mutations,  or  three  forms ; 
the  sonants  b,  g,  and  d  have  one  mutation,  or  two 
forms a ;  m  has  the  same  change  as  6.  The  other 
letters  are  not  subject  to  change. 

The  writers  on  Welsh  grammar  have  given  vari- 
ous names  to  these  several  forms  :  what  one  writer 
calls  the  soft  form  another  calls  light ;  the  same  is 
named  aspirate  by  one  and  nasal  by  the  other.  I 
therefore  propose  to  call  the  radical  letter  the  first, 
and  the  two  mutations,  the  second  and  the  third 
forms,  as  all  are  agreed  upon  the  order  in  which 
they  come.  When  I  wish  to  designate  the  form 
which  ought  to  follow  any  given  word,  I  shall  occa- 

a  The  sonants  have  a  second  mutation,  which  will  be  no- 
ticed presently ;  but  it  is  a  return  to  the  surd  form,  and  is 
not  of  the  nature  of  the  other  changes.  I  would  call  it 
negative. 


10  CORNISH   GRAMMAE. 

sionally  put  a  little  numeral  over  the  word  by  way 
of  abbreviation ;  writing  for  example  oiv3,  "  my," 
and  y2,  "  his,"  to  shew  that  the  initial  consonant  of 
the  words  following  these  possessive  pronouns  must 
take  the  respective  forms  which  the  figures  point 
out. 

The  changes  of  the  surd  letters  are  precisely 
those  of  the  so-called  tenues  to  mediae  and  aspiratae 
in  Greek  grammar ;  as  TT,  [3,  <$>,  &c.  In  Cornish 
these  are  p,  b,f;  &,  g,  h;  t,  d,  th.  In  the  sonant 
letters  the  one  change  is  to  what  we  may  call  the 
aspirate  sonant :  b  becomes  v  (bh),  d  becomes  th 
(dli),  and  g  might  have  been,  by  analogy,  made  gh, 
with  a  guttural  sound,  perhaps  like  that  of  the 
Greek  digamma ;  but  as  gh  was  already  employed 
for  the  aspirate  of  c  when  final,  and  as  moreover  the 
aspirate  gh  has  in  most  languages  shewn  a  ten- 
dency to  disappear,  the  g  in  this  state  is  either  left 
out  altogether,  or  changed  to  w,  and  more  rarely 
to  wht  as  in  D  2156.  In  the  same  instances  the 
Welsh  omits  the  g,  and  the  Bretons  write  c'h,  un- 
less a  w  follow  the  g}  in  which  case  g  is  omitted,  as 
in  "Welsh.  M,  like  b,  becomes  v.  In  the  sonant 
letters  the  third  form  is  like  the  first. 

In  accordance  with  the  above  described  muta- 
tions, we  may  form  the  following  table : — 

i  2  3 

P  B  F 

K  G  H 

T  D  Th 

B  V  B 

G  W,  or  nothing      G 

D  Th  D 

M  V  M 

The  cases  of  mutation  will  appear  in  the  gram- 
mar, but  a  few  examples  are  here  given : — 


MUTATION  OF  CONSONANTS.        11 

Ou3fehas  (pehas),  "  my  sins,"  0  2257  ;  y2  das 
(tas),  "  his  father,"  0  2740  ;  y2  vam  (mam),  "  his 
mother,"  0  2740;  agd*  threys  (treys),  "their 
feet,"  0  760;  ow3  banneth,  "my  blessing,""  O 
2168  ;  y2  volnogeth  (bolnogetli), "  his  will,'1 0  2352; 
the11  wovyn  (govyri),  "  to  ask/'  D  2667  ;  the  ase 
(gase),  "  to  leave,"  D  2035.  Once  I  find  ch  changed 
to  g :  the  gy  (chy),  "  thy  house,"  0  1018. 

The  sonants  6,  g,  d,  are  also  subject  to  take  the 
surd  forms  of  p,  k,  t ;  this  initial  mutation  is  un- 
known to  the  Welsh  tongue,  but  it  is  found  in 
Armoric  ;  Zeuss  has  named  it  provection.  I  mark 
the  words  with  °  which  produce  this  change.  Ex- 
amples are,  ow  querthe  (guerthe),  "  selling,"  D 
1520;  a  pe  (be),  "if  it  were,"  R  1662  ;  ou  tos 
(dos),  "  coming,"  O  1 65 1 ;  mar  kruge  (gruge],  "  if  I 
do,"D  875  ;  yn  ta  (da),  "  well,"  D  1905.  We  have 
the  singular  form  ou  fysky  (guysky),  "  striking," 
0  1685. 

In  Cornish,  as  in  Welsh  and  Armoric,  the  f  suffers 
no  change.  It  seems  however  that  in  the  latest 
days  of  the  existence  of  the  language,  a  mutation 
was  made  like  that  of  b  and  m.  Lhuyd  mentions 
an  vordh,  "  the  way,"  from  forth,  p.  241,  as  well 
as  a  more  peculiar  change  to  h  in  the  oblique  case, 
as  a'n  hloh,  "  of  the  child,"  from  floh,  p.  242.  I 
have  not  seen  a  trace  of  such  mutations  in  the 
manuscript. 

In  the  Armoric,  s  is  regularly  changed  to  z.  I 
have  found  only  one  case  of  the  change  ;  it  occurs 
in  0  2358. 

Observe  generally  that  the  mutations  are  often 
neglected  in  the  manuscripts,  and  nothing  must  be 
concluded  from  their  absence.  This  is  also  the  case 
with  ancient  Welsh,  Breton,  and  Irish  writings, 
though  the  practice  is  now  to  insert  them  regularly 


12  CORNISH  GRAMMAR. 

in  every  instance.  It  is  most  probable  that  they 
were  always  used  in  speaking,  however  the  writer 
may  have  neglected  to  spell  in  accordance  with  the 
pronunciation. 


§.  6.  ARTICLES. 

The  definite  Article  is  an  (en)  for  all  numbers 
and  genders  ;  as,  an  myghtern,  "  the  king,"  R  104; 
an  venen,  "  the  woman,"  0516;  anporthoiv,  "the 
gates,"  R  98.  When  it  is  in  connection  with  a 
preceding  word  ending  with  a  vowel,  the  article 
usually  loses  its  own  vowel,  and  the  n  is  added  to 
the  preceding  word.  In  this  work  the  n  is  divided 
by  an  apostrophe,  which  is  not  found  in  the  manu- 
scripts. 

The  article  has  no  inflection,  but  the  cases  are 
made  by  prepositions:  as  en  tas  ha'n  map  ha'n 
spyrys,  "  the  Father  and  the  Son  and  the  Spirit," 
0  4 :  an  mor  ha'n  tyryow,  "  the  sea  and  the  lands," 
O  26  :  tJie'n  tas,  "  to  the  Father,"  D  626  :  a'n  nef, 
"from  the  heaven,"  O  1319:  war  an  kunys, 
"upon  the  wood,"  0  1333:  the'n  dor,  "to  the 
ground,"  O  1448. 

The  indefinite  article  is  un  for  both  genders ;  it 
is  rarely  used.  Ex.  un  map,  "a  son,"  0  639; 
worth  un  venen,  "  to  a  woman,"  0  419. 


§.  7.    SUBSTANTIVES. 

In  Cornish,  as  in  the  other  Celtic  languages,  a 
substantive  is  either  masculine  or  feminine :  the 
chief,  though  not  the  only  grammatical  distinction, 
between  masculine  and  feminine,  is  the  change  of 


SUBSTANTIVES.  13 

an  initial  consonant,  when  mutable,  to  one  of  the 
second  class,  in  a  feminine  substantive  of  the  sin- 
gular number.  Examples  are :  un  venen  (beneri), 
"a  woman,"  0  419 ;  an  venen,  0516;  an  dre 
(tre),  "the  town,"  0  2282;  an  wethen  (gwethen), 
"the  tree,"  O  201;  an  bous  (pous),  "the  robe," 
R  1921-4.  The  same  change  distinguishes  the 
gender  of  an  adjective  used  substantively ;  as,  an 
casadow,  m.  0  2119;  an  gasadow,  f.  0  2691, 
"  the  hated  person." 

Males  and  females  have  sometimes  names  of  dif- 
ferent origin,  as  den,  "  a  man,"  benen,  "  a  woman ;" 
in  many  cases  the  name  of  the  female  differs  from 
that  of  the  male  by  the  addition  of  es ;  as  arluth, 
"lord,"  D  1957,  arlothes,  "lady,"  1)1965;  py- 
stryor,  "a  wizard,"  D  1767, pestryores,  "a  witch," 
O  2668 ;  cowyth,  "  a  male  companion,"  O  2043, 
cowethes,  "  a  female  companion,"  0  92 ;  maw ,  "  a 
boy/'  D  1794,  mowes,  "a  girl/'  D  1876. 


§.  8.  Plural 

The  plural  number  has  many  forms  ;  one  of  the 
commonest  ends  in  ow :  the  Welsh  au,  Breton  ou. 
A  few  examples  follow  :— 

tassow,  fathers,       O  1409  from  tas,  O  i. 

dornow,  hands,       01390  ..  dorn,  R  2178. 

roow,  gifts,   O  2314,  2598  . .  ro,  O  2467. 

fosow,  walls,  O  2320  ..  fos,  O  2281. 

scovornow,  ears,      D  1361  . .  scoforn,  D  1144. 

Icentrow,  nails,         D  2698  . .  kenter,  D  2676. 

dewow,  gods,          O  2692  . .  deu,  O  2564. 

lyfryow,  books,  D  78, 101  . .  levyr,  D  1157. 

enevow,  souls,  D  144  . .  enef,  D  1753. 

trevow,  towns,          D  132  . .  ire  (Welsh,  tref.) 

tyryow,  lands  O  26  . .  tyr,  D  392. 


14  CORNISH  GRAMMAR. 

A  very  common  termination  for  plurals  of  per- 
sonal words  is  ion  :  Welsh  ion,  Breton  ien.  These 
generally  change  the  final  vowel  :  — 

Mebyon,  sons,         O  1038  from  map,  R  933. 
guesyon,  fellows,     D  1299     .  .     guas,  R  1824. 
yethewon,  Jews,      D  2013     .  .     yethow,  D  2003. 


^} 
marrouggyon,  do.    Oi039/ 

Some  adjectives  used  as  substantives  take  the 
same  form  :  — 

kefyon,  wise  persons,  D  10261    f  ,  Q 

cufyon,    ..........  Dio75/ 

gueryon,  true  men,      D  1305      from  guyr,  R  977. 

Also  some  common  nouns  :  — 

prevyon,  reptiles,  O  1160. 
govegyon,  sorrows,  D  1062. 
empynyon,  brains,  D  2120. 
marthogyon,  wonders,  O  2546. 

We  have  also  laddron,  "thieves,"  D  2255,  from 
lader,  D  1174. 

Many  plurals  end  in  y  :  this  form  is  also  found 
in  Welsh  and  Armoric,  but  not  so  frequently  :  — 

ysyly,  limbs,  D  1733. 

esely       .  .  O  2735. 

mowysy,  maids,  D  944.       mowes,  D  1876. 

anfugy,  sins  ?  01473.     anfus,  D  1501. 

profugy,  prophets,  D  1480.    pro/us,  D  1465. 

servysy,  servants,  O  235. 

guythysy,  guards,  O  2038. 

arlythy,  lords  D  1900.         arluth,  D  393. 


mestrygy,  masters     Diyii.-,      ^^  D        fi 
mestrigi,      .  .  D  1047.  J 

In  some  words  the  plural  is  the  stem,  and  the 
singular  adds  the  syllable  en,  which  is  here  an  indi- 
vidualizing particle. 


SUBSTANTIVES.  15 

delen,  a  leaf,  deyl,  leaves,  O  254 ;  also  dylyow,  O  777. 
gryghonen,  a  spark,  D  2717,  guryghon,  sparks,  D  2101. 
guelen,  a  rod,  O  1444,  gueel,  rods,  O  1957. 
guethen,  a  tree,  O  186,  gueyth,  trees,  O  28. 
luhesen,  a  flash  of  lightning,  R  293,  luhes,  lightnings, 
R296. 

In  Armoric,  nouns  denoting  the  condition  of  men, 
as  well  as  names  of  animals,  form  their  plural  by- 
adding  ed.  In  Cornish  the  d  has  become  s  as 
usual,  and  more  rarely  th  : — 

eleth,  angels,  R  190  from  el,  R  787. 

myrhes,  daughters,  O  1038  "1  i,  r\       * 

*    l>.      myrgh,Q2lz6. 
myrghes,  D  2639  J 

benenes,  women,  O  2247     . .     benen,  O  256. 

JfeAes,  children,  O  1036  j        flogh)OSo6. 

flehas,  O  1031  ;  fleghas,  D  1924  J 

abesteleth,  apostles,  R  893. 

bredereth,  brethren,  0714"!  ,,      ~ 

'  *  }-. .     broder,  O  525. 
brudereth,     ....  D  1430  J 

puskes,  fishes,  O  43    . .     pyslc,  O  139. 

bestes,  beasts,  0312     ..      best,  O  798. 

syllyes,  eels,  O  136. 

Many  words  have  plurals  formed  by  a  change  of 
vowel  only ;  this  is  evidently  the  umlaut,  the  Cor- 
nish application  of  which  is  described  in  §.  3.  Thus 
we  have 

trys,  D  835,  treys,  D  2937,  feet,  from  trous,  D  860, 

tros,  D  2781. 

meyn,  stones,  D  62  from  men,  D  3211. 

breder,  brothers,     R  1163     . .     broder,  O  525. 
deves,  sheep,  O  1065     . .      daves,  O  127. 

mergh,  horses,        61065     ..      margh,  O  124. 
tel,  holes,  D  3174     . .      tol,  D  3170. 

escarn,  bones,         0*743!         o^corn,  R  2598. 
yscarn,  D  3173-* 

Some  end  in  n  : — 

kuen,  dogs,  R  172  from  ky,  R  2026. 

lysten,  cloths,         O  808. 

hynwyn,  names      O  135  from  hanow,  R  1669. 


16  CORNISH  GRAMMAR. 

Words  from  the  English  generally  take  s  in  the 
plural : — 

persons,  O  no,  persons. 

onours,  D  1627,  honours. 

scryptours,  D  1673,  scriptures. 

doctours,  D  1626,  doctors. 

syres,  D  1471,  sirs. 

skorgys,  whyppys,  D  2056,  scourges,  whips. 

chaynys,  D  2060,  chains. 

§.9.  What  the  Welsh  and  Breton  grammarians 
call  the  dual  number,  viz.  a  compound  of  the  nu- 
meral with  the  noun,  used  only  in  the  case  of  parts 
of  the  body  which  are  double,  is  common  in  Cornish. 
Example: — dyulef,  D  2375,  dule,  D  2163,  "the 
hands,"  from  luef.  "  hand,"  D  2755  5  dywscoth,  D 
3068,  duscoth,  D  2583,  "  the  shoulders,"  from 
scouth,  D  658;  dywvregh,  D  3 159,  "the  arms,''  from 
break,  D  2753  ;  dewlagas,  "  the  eyes,"  D.  396 ; 
dewlyn,  61196,  deuglyn,  D.  247,  "the  knees,'1 
&c.  &c. 

When  such  parts  of  the  body  are  mentioned  as 
belonging  to  more  than  one  person,  a  plural  is 
used,  as  dornow,  "  hands,11  D  1390  ;  also  lagasow, 
R  1492,  "  the  eyes"  of  two  men. 

§.  10.  Cases. 

With  the  exception  of  the  genitive,  all  the  cases 
are  formed,  as  in  English,  by  prepositions ;  as, 
the  vyghtern  David,  "  to  king  David,"  0  1929  ;  yn 
Araby,  *'  in  Arabia,11  O  1930  ;  a'n  pen,  "  from  the 
head,"  D  1743;  a  dre,  "from  home,1'  02172; 
the'n  tas,  "to  the  father,11  O  2619. 

The  genitive  of  attribution,  such  as  might  be 
rendered  by  an  adjective,  is,  I  think,  usually  made 
by  a2 ;  as,  Arluth  a  ras,  "  Lord  of  grace,"  R  767, 
i.  e.  gracious  Lord ;  Tas  a  nef,  "  Father  of  heaven,11 


SUBSTANTIVES.  17 

"  heavenly  Father ;"  myghtern  a  gallos,  "  king  of 
power,"  R  834,  powerful  king.  This  is  also  the 
form  of  an  ablative  case ;  as,  a'y  thywle,  "  from  his 
hands,"  03153.  But  the  ordinary  genitive  is  made 
by  apposition  only,  always  following  the  chief  sub- 
stantive ;  as,  myghtern  yethewon,  "  King  of  the 
Jews,"  D  1 998  ;  mob  den,  "  Son  of  man,"  0  1 950 ; 
coys  Penryn,  "  wood  of  Penryn,"  0  2589 ;  taves 
den,  "  tongue  of  man,"  O  767.  Sometimes  the 
genitive  suffers  a  mutation  for  no  reason  that  I  am 
aware  of,  as,  pen  vys  (mys),  "  the  end  of  a  month," 
D  1646  ;  pen  vyghterneth  (myghterneth],  "head 
of  royalty,"  R  3 13. 

I  think  I  have  been  in  error  in  printing  the 
genitive  with  the  article  a'n  instead  of  an.  I  did 
not  at  first  see  the  difference  between  the  genitive 
of  attribution  and  the  ordinary  genitive,  and  there- 
fore put  a'n  indiscriminately ;  I  now  should  write 
deu  <£n  nef,  "  God  of  the  heaven,"  0  480,  i.  e. 
"  heavenly  God,"  but  cusil  an  tas,  "  counsel  of  the 
father,"  O  188. 

§.  1 1 .  One  of  the  most  interesting  peculiarities 
of  the  Cornish  language,  which  distinguishes  it 
from  the  cognate  Welsh  and  Armoric  and  connects 
it  with  the  Gaelic  dialects,  is  the  possession  of  a 
really  inflected  genitive  case  formed  by  internal 
vocalic  change,  of  precisely  the  same  nature  as  the 
Irish  genitive.  It  is  true  that  I  find  no  example  of 
this  genitive  in  the  ancient  Manuscripts,  but  it  cer- 
tainly existed  in  the  modern  Cornish  a  century 
and  half  ago,  when  Lhuyd  wrote  his  Archaeologia 
Britannica.  The  passage  shewing  this  case  is  found 
at  p.  242,  and  I  quote  it  here  : 

"  They  used  formerly,  and  do  yet  in  several 
words,  a  variation  of  vowel  (whether  the  first  or 
the  only  one)  in  the  genitive  case,  &c. 


18  CORNISH  GRAMMAR. 

"  Particularly  a,  I  find  changed  into  e ;  as  Mark, 
A  horse  ;  Ren  verh,  Horse  mane ;  Buzl  verh,  Horse 
dung ;  and  e  into  i,  y,  or  ey :  as  Merh,  A  daughter ; 
An  vyrh,  Of  the  daughter ;  Pen,  A  head ;  Er  dha 
byn,  Against  thee,  q.  d.  On  thy  head ;  And  Er 
agas  pyn  huy,  Against  you ;  Huel,  Work ;  Mein 
hueyl,  Work  stones,  or  stones  for  Building ;  Kres, 
The  midst ;  In  Tcreys  an  dre,  In  the  midst  of  the 
Town." 

Now  this  is  precisely  the  Gaelic  genitive,  as 
found  in  the  oldest  Irish  relics,  and  in  the  language 
now  spoken ;  pyn,  genitive  of  pen,  is  equivalent  in 
form  and  meaning  to  cinn,  genitive  of  ceann ;  mark, 
genitive  merh,  is  like  clann,  genitive  clainn  ;  Jcres, 
genitive  kreys,  is  equal  to  ean,  genitive  ein. 

In  the  compound  preposition  erbyn(hom  er  peri), 
"  against,""  a  trace  of  this  change  is  found  even  in 
Welsh,  though  the  Welsh  grammarians  do  not 
notice  it.  Lhuyd  was  led  to  the  discovery  of  the 
nature  of  this  compound  preposition  by  finding  its 
parts  separated  in  the  Cornish  manuscripts,  and  a 
governed  pronoun  inserted  between  them,  though 
he  says  nothing  of  its  analogy  to  his  own  language, 
or  to  Irish.  A  Cornish  man  would  say  erbyn  haf, 
"  against  summer,"  O  31,  as  it  is  in  Welsh;  but  he 
would  say  er  owfyn,  "  against  me,"  R  1919,  2573  ; 
er  the  byn,  "  against  thee,11  O  1350 ;  er  y  byn, 
"  against  him,"  D  232  ;  er  agan  pyn,  "  against  us," 
D  1663  ;  er  agas  pyn,  "  against  you,"  D  1 80 ;  and 
er  agafyn,  "  against  them/'  P.  96.  4,  with  the  re- 
gular initial  changes,  shewing  the  nature  of  the 
substantive. 

The  ancient  Irish  is  perfectly  analogous,  though  the 
modern  dialect  does  not  appear  to  have  retained  it 
so  closely ;  ar  chenn,  literally  "  to  the  head,"  means 
"  in  front  of,"  or  "  against ;"  ar  mo  chiunn,  is  "be- 


SUBSTANTIVES.  19 

fore  me ;"  ar  a  chiunn,  "before  him ;"  ar  ar  chiunn, 
"before  us,"  &c.  &c.  See  Zeuss,  pp.  577  and  618. 

I  have  dwelled  on  this  genitive  at  greater  length 
than  might  seem  called  for,  because  it  is  the  only 
trace  of  a  declension  in  the  Cymric  class  of  lan- 
guages, and  is  decidedly  opposed  to  the  theory  that 
cases  were  developed  in  Gaelic  after  the  separation 
of  the  two  families ;  it  impugns  also  the  classification 
which  denies  to  the  Cymric  the  character  of  an 
Indo-germanic  tongue,  on  the  grounds  of  the  sup- 
posed non-development  of  declension. 

A  substantive  preceding  another  in  the  genitive 
case  never  takes  the  article:  as  map  deu,  "the 
Son  of  God,"  D  1951 ;  both  ow  thas  (tas),  "  the  will 
of  my  Father,"  R  157  ;  gos  ow  holon  (colon],  "  the 
blood  of  my  heart,"  R  1 66 ;  gorfen  beys,  "  the  end 
of  the  world,"  D  1704. 

§.  12.  The  dative  case  is  formed  by  the12,  or  the 
with  the  second  form  ;  as  the  dre  (tre),  "  to  town," 
O  906 ;  the  gyk  (%&),  "  to  flesh  ;"  the  ways  (goys), 
"  to  blood,"  O  66. 

The  ablative  also  takes  the  second  form,  as 
a  vaghtyth  (maghtyth),  "  from  a  virgin,"  D  3027. 

The  vocative  preceded  by  a  personal  pronoun  or 
by  «,  takes  also  the  second  form  :  as,  a  vap  (map), 
"O  son,"  01336;  a  vam  (mam),  "0  mother," 
D  2949 ;  ty  venen  (beneri),  "  thou  woman,"  R  917  ; 
ty  vaow  (maoui),  "thou  boy,"  O  2317. 


§.  13.   Derivation  of  Substantives. 

Abstract  substantives  are  derived  from  adjectives 
by  adding  ter  after  a  surd  consonant,  and  der  after 
other  letters : 


20  CORNISH  GRAMMAR. 

Ex.  dader,  goodness,  D  1296  from  da,  good. 

guyrder,  truth,  61732     ..     guyr,  true. 

ffuander,  weakness,  D  2618     . .     guan,  weak. 

yender,  coldness,  D  1223     . .     yen,  cold. 

ffolowder,  brilliancy,  O  1413     . .     golow,  light. 
tekter,  beauty,  D  33     . .     lek,  beautiful. 

whekter,  sweetness,      O  359     . .     whek,  sweet. 

uthekter,  horror,  D  2653     . .     uthyk,  frightful, 
R  2340,  uthek,  O  798. 
melder,  sweetness,        R  457     . .     mel,  honey. 

Adjectives  in  s,  anciently  ending  with  t,  recover 
the  t  in  becoming  substantives ;  as, 

caletter,  hardness,  O  1524,  from  coles,  hard,  O  1525, 

0927. 
goscotter,  shelter,  O  361,  is  the  probable  reading  from 

ffuskys,  O  356,  the  Welsh  gwasgod. 
ponvolter,  trouble,  O  363,  from  ponvos,  R  1327,  but 

these  two  examples   are  hardly  regular,   the  roots 

having  rather  the  value  of  substantives. 

Other  abstract  substantives  take  eth  or  neth&, 
but  their  simpler  form  is  more  commonly  a  sub- 
stantive : — 

guyryoneth,  truth,        D  2029  from  guyryon,  true  men. 

cosoleth,  rest,                01725  ..  cosel,  O  2073. 
skentuleth,  wisdom,      D  1809. 
bolungeth,  will,             D  2053. 

myghterneth,  royalty,     R  313  •  •  myghtern,  a  king. 

folneth,  folly,                  R  961  . .  fol,  R  953,  a  fool. 

gokyneth,  stupidity,      D  1808  ..  ffoky,  O  1 73,  a  fool. 

muscoffhneth,  madness,  D  1990  ..  muscok, crazed, 0961. 

gowegneth,  falsehood,     R  906  . .  gowek,  a  liar,  R  55. 

roweth,  bounty,              O  884  . .  ro,  a  gift,  O  2467. 

Abstract  substantives  derived  from  verbs  com- 
monly end  in  ans : — 

a  Welsh  and  Armoric  analogy  would  require  eth,  but 
Lhuyd  wrote  always  eth.  See  his  Grammar,  p.  240. 


SUBSTANTIVES.  21 

crygyans,  belief,  D  1813  from  crygy. 

yyvyans,  forgiveness,          D  1816     ..     gafa. 
dysquythyans,  declaration,  O  1733     ..     dysqmthya. 
gorthyans,  worship,  01738     ..     gorthe. 

bewnans,  life,  O  848  "1          7,         .    v 

Y . .     oewe,  to  Lve. 
bewnens,  . .  O  701  J 

mernans,  death,  O  1522     . .     maruel. 

sylwans,  salvation,  O  1958     . .     sylwel. 

sylwyans,      ..  R  2611. 

trystyns,  sadness,  D  1023. 

Arlottes,  "a  lordship,"  D  1614,  is  from  arluth, 
"  a  lord ;"  wythres,  "  a  work,"  or  thing  made,  O 
1069,  1853,  from  wyth,  "the  doing,"  0  2572, 
D  3029,  is  analogous  to  the  Welsh  gwaith  and 
gweithred. 

A  substantive  signifying  a  doer  is  sometimes 
made  by  adding  or  to  a  verb  or  noun,  as  tyor,  "  a 
tiler,"  O  2486,  from  ty,  "  to  cover,"  O  2475.  See 
also  pystryor,  "a  wizard,"  D  1767,  from  pystry, 
"sorcery,"  D  1765. 

In  the  ancient  vocabulary  several  such  names  of 
agency  end  in  iad  or  iat.  Similar  forms  become 
in  the  dramas  guy  thy  as,  "  a  keeper,"  0  692  ;  syl- 
vyas.  "a  saviour,"  D  252,  R  307. 

We  have  a  termination  va  in  powesva,  "  rest," 
0145;  cofva,  "remembrance,"  D  827,  and  dy- 
wethva,  "end,"  D  728. 

It  may  be  given  as  a  rule  without  exception,  that 
words  ending  with  t  6r  d  in  Welsh  or  Breton,  do, 
if  they  exist  in  Cornish,  turn  t  or  d  to  s ;  and  this 
whether  genuine  Celtic,  or  borrowed  from  Latin  or 
English  ;  as,  nans,  *'  a  valley ;"  goys,  "  blood ;" 
gwyls,  "  grass  ;"  guyns,  "  wind ;"  ros,  "  net ;" 
pons,  "  bridge  ;"  tas,  "  father ;"  spyrys,  "  spirit," 
corresponding  with  nant,  gwaed,  gwellt,  gwynt, 
rhwyd,  pont,  tad,  yspryd. 


CORNISH  GRAMMAR. 


§.14.  ADJECTIVES. 

The  adjective  usually  follows  the  substantive, 
and  if  the  latter  be  a  feminine  singular,  the  ad- 
jective takes  the  second  form,  when  the  initial  is 
mutable.  Examples  are,  "  gobar  bras,  "  great  re- 
ward,1' R  672;  mor  ruyth,  "  red  sea,11  O  1622; 
merkyl  tek,  "  fair  miracle,"  O  1450 ;  luef  gleih 
(cleth),  "  left  hand,"  D  2747 ;  cusyl  tha  {da), 
"  good  advice,11  O  2802  ;  benen  vas  (mas),  "  good 
woman,"  R  1697.  In  guyr  vres,  "  true  judgment," 
D  5 15,  and  guyr  gos,  "  true  blood,"  D  1506,  the 
adjective  precedes. 

According  to  Lhuyd,  p.  243,  an  adjective  with  y 
for  its  vowel  was  made  feminine  by  changing  y  to 
e  ;  as,  guyn,  m.  guen,  f.  "  white  ;"  melyn,  m.  tne- 
len,  f.  "yellow."  I  do  not  know  sufficiently  the 
genders  of  nouns,  and  adjectives  are  not  of  very 
frequent  occurrence,  so  that  I  have  not  noticed  the 
change ;  but  it  is  consistent  with  Welsh  Grammar. 

The  comparative  and  superlative  degrees  both 
end  in  a  (e)  without  distinction ;  as,  brasa,  "  great- 
er," from  bras,  D  793 ;  uhella,  "  highest,"  D 
2189,  from  uhel,  0  805;  or  lelle,  "more  faith- 
ful," 0  i in,  from  lei.  The  finals  ch  and  f(m), 
which  make  a  difference  between  the  degrees  in 
Welsh  and  Armoric,  have  disappeared  in  Cornish, 
though  in  the  last  days  of  its  existence  Lhuyd  added 
an  apostrophe  or  h  to  shew  the  comparative.  The 
adjective  in  these  stages  appears  to  come  rather 
before  than  after  the  substantive.  Example: — 
Uhella  arloth,  "  most  high  Lord."  D  2189  ;  gokye 
den,  "most  foolish  man,"  Ri454;  lacka  mester, 
"a  worse  master,11  D  2275  ;  lelle  ethen,  "more 


NUMBERS.  23 

faithful  bird,"  0 1 1 1 1 ;  tekke  alter,  "  a  fairer  altar," 
O  1177  ;  brasa  gallos,  "  greatest  power,"  D  793  ; 
guel  guyn, "  better  wine,"  0  1914 ;  but  we  find  also 
ffuyn  guella,  "  best  wine,"  0  1904 ;  dyllas  guella, 
"  best  clothes,"  D  256. 

"  Than"  after  a  comparative  is  made  by  ys,  es,  or 
ages.  Example : — whekke  ys  mel,  "  sweeter  than 
honey,"  R  144 ;  moy  es  spencer,  "  greater  than  a 
butler,"  D  802 ;  teke  ages  kyns,  "  fairer  than  be- 
fore," D  348. 

Some  comparatives  appear  to  have  no  root  ex- 
tant ;  as,  guel  or  guella,  "  better ;"  gueth,  "  worse," 
R  2026,  and  perhaps  guetha,  01130;  moy,  O 
1414  ;  mogha,  D  510 ;  moghya,  0513;  moghye, 
D  514,  "  more  or  most,"  and  perhaps  a  few  more. 

Adjectives  are  often  made  from  substantives  by 
the  addition  of  ek  or  yk.  Examples  are : — 

gallosek,         R  752,  powerful,     from  gallos,  O  1214. 

ounek,  D  2158,  fearful,  ..     oun,  O  1452. 

lowenek,  R  1333,  joyful,  . .      lowene,  D  574. 

marthusek  R  1176,  wonderful,     ..      marthys,  O  756. 

morethek,  D  3187,  mournful,       . .      moreth,  O  358. 

ponfosyk,  R  1256,  troubled,        . .     ponfos,  R 1327. 

anfusyk,  R  1520,  mischievous, . .     an/us,  D  1501. 
wJiansek,         D  37,  desirous,        . .     whans,  O  1806. 

dyscrygyk,  R  1369,  incredulous,  from  the  verb  crygy, 
to  believe. 


§.15.  NUMBERS. 

The  following  list  of  cardinal  numbers  is  partly 
from  the  Manuscripts,  and  where  no  authority  is 
cited,  from  the  list  published  by  Pryce ;  the  words 
between  brackets  are  intended  as  corrections  of 


24  CORNISH  GRAMMAR. 

the  loose  forms  given  in  Pryce's  list,  made  by  the 
analogies  of  Welsh  and  Armoric. 

1.  un,  D.  160,  446,  with  a  substantive. 
onan,  O  3.  onon,  R  1403,  alone. 

2.  deu,  D  2577.   dyw,  O  1690.    dew,  R  315. 

3.  try,  m.  R  374,  870. 

tyr,  f.  O  828.  tyyr,  f.  O  1729.  ter,  f.  D  147. 

4.  peswar,  m.  R  563. 
pedyr,  f.  O  772. 

5.  pymp,  D  505.  pym,  R  867. 

6.  wAe,  D  351. 

7.  sey£A,  O  599.   sy£A,  R  2494. 

8.  eath,  (eyth.) 

9.  naw,  R  661. 

10.  dek,  D  574. 

11.  ednack,  (unnek.) 

12.  dewthek,  D  228. 

13.  tardhak,  trethek. 

14.  puzwarthack,  (peswar thek.) 

15.  pymthek,  P.  228,  i. 

1 6.  huettag,  whettak,  (whethek.) 

17.  seitag,  (seytek.) 

1 8.  caffl^r,  (eythek.) 

19.  nawnzack,  (naunthek.) 

20.  iganz,  (ugens.) 

21.  wonnan  war  iganz,  (onan  war  ugens.) 

30.  dek  warnugens,  D sg^.  dek  warnugans,  01554. 

40.  e?ew  ugens,  D  45.  rfew  hugens,  R  2437. 

46.  rfew  w^rews  ^a  wAe,  D  351. 

50.  rf$7  fea  duganz,  (dek  ha  deugans) 
or  hauler  cans,  O  957. 

60.  £n  iganz,  (try  ugens},  P  227,  3. 

70.  (?ry  M^rens  Aa  deA:.) 

80.  padgwar  iganz,  (peswar  ugens.) 

90.  padgwar  iganz  ha  dek,  (peswar  ugens  ha  dek) 
100.  cans,  D  506.  can,  R  515. 
200.  dew  cans,  O  657. 
300.  try  cans,  D  536.  trey  hans,  O  1996. 

fry  hans,  O  955. 
500.  pymp  cans,  D  505. 
700.  si/JA  cans,  R  2494. 
900.  naw  cans,  C.  p.  142. 


NUMBERS.  25 

1000.  myl,  D  212.  R  348. 

dek  can,  D  574. 
5000.  pymp  myl,  P  227,  2. 
7000.  syth  myl,  R  2494. 
100,000.  cans  vyl,  O  1614. 
1,000,000.  myl  vyl,  R  132. 
mylyon,  R  2258. 

It  will  be  observed  that  the  awkward  composition 
of  numbers  between  ten  and  fifteen  used  in  Welsh 
is  avoided  in  Cornish  as  it  is  in  Armoric  ;  though 
it  is  retained  in  numbers  above  twenty.  The  sin- 
gular Welsh  mode  of  making  the  numbers  between 
fifteen  and  twenty  is  unknown  here.  The  Cornish 
has  retained  the  distinction  of  genders  in  the  nu- 
merals three  and  four,  but  in  "  two"  it  seems  to 
have  been  lost,  though  retained  in  Welsh  and 
Armoric. 

We  have  the  plural  of  myl  in  the  Creation,  p.  54, 
moy  es  millyow  a  bynsow,  "  more  than  thousands 
of  pounds." 

Substantives  following  the  numerals  are  put  in 
the  singular  number ;  as,  naw  ahveth,  "  nine  keys/' 
II  66 1 ;  deu  ladar,  "two  thieves,"  D  2577;  dew 
ugens  dyth,  "forty  days,'1  O  1027. 

When  numbers  are  compounded,  the  substantive 
is  placed  after  the  first ;  as,  dew  ugens  blythen  ha 
whe,  "forty  and  six  years/'  D  351. 

Ordinal  numbers,  after  the  earlier  ones,  are 
formed  by  adding  ves  to  the  cardinals;  ves  is 
clearly  the  Armoric  ved  and  Welsh  fed;  it  may 
have  been  a  corruption  of  guyth,  "a  time/'  in 
Welsh  gwaith. 

ist.  kensa,  D  795. 
2nd.  secund,  O  17. 

nessa  in  Pryce's  list. 

3rd.  tresse,  O  25.    trege,  R  339.   tryge,  R  452. 
4th.  peswere,  O  33.    pyswere,  D  2851. 
5th.  pympes,  O  41. 


26  CORNISH   GRAMMAR. 

6th.  whefes,  O  49. 
7th.  seythves,  O  144. 
8th.  eathas,  (eythves.) 
pth.  nawas. 
loth,  degves,  O  426. 

All  the  rest  have  vas  in  the  lists ;  the  analogy  of 
the  Welsh  and  Armoric,  and  the  seythves  of  the 
MS.  for  seithvas  of  the  list,  show  ves  to  be  the  true 
form. 


§.  16.  PERSONAL  PRONOUNS. 

Personal  pronouns  may  be  practically  considered 
as  indeclinable ;  it  is  true  that  some  of  them  have 
two  forms,  but  the  second  of  these  is  not  so  much 
that  of  an  accusative  case,  as  a  changed  form  re- 
quired by  position  in  respect  to  its  regimen ;  in  the 
same  way  the  French  moi  and  toi  are  not  so  much 
the  accusative  cases  of  je  and  tu,  as  the  forms  used 
when  they  are  less  closely  connected  with  a  verb 
than  those  called  exclusively  nominatives ;  it  is  true 
that  je  and  tu  are  nominatives,  and  that  moi  and 
toi  are  generally  accusatives ;  but  these  are  also 
sometimes  nominatives,  and  this  is  the  case  with 
Cornish  personal  pronouns.  These  two  forms  I 
would  name  the  first  and  second  states.  When 
personal  pronouns  follow  certain  particles  ending 
with  vowels,  they  are  abbreviated  and  otherwise 
altered ;  this  I  would  call  a  third  state  :  when  con- 
nected with  a  preposition,  they  are  also  abbre- 
viated, but  in  a  different  way,  which  may  be  termed 


PRONOUNS.  27 

a  fourth  state.  It  will  be  more  intelligible  if  all  the 
forms  be  put  together  in  a  table,  to  which  it  will  be 
convenient  to  add  the  possessive  pronoun,  because 
the  strictly  personal  pronouns  sometimes  put  on  the 
possessive  form. 


i 

2 

3 

4 

possess. 

I 

my,  me 

vy 

'M 

'/,'• 

ow;3 

Thou 

ty 

sy,gy 

'd,  'th 

's 

Me2 

He 

ef 

ef,e 

'n 

'o 

y2 

She 

hy 

hy,y 

's 

'y 

y* 

We 

ny 

ny 

'n 

'n 

agan 

You 

why 

why 

's 

'ugh 

agas 

They 

y 

y 

's 

'e 

agas 

When  a  personal  pronoun  is  used  alone,  or  when 
it  is  the  subject  of  a  verb,  it  is  put  in  the  first 
state:  as, 

my  a  vyn,  I  will,  O  2283. 

me  re  goskes,  I  have  slept,  R  511. 

ha  my  ynno  ef,  and  I  in  him,  R  2387. 

ty  yu,  thou  art,  R  751. 

a  ty  lacob,  O  thou  James,  R  1007. 

ty  re  wruk,  thou  hast  done,  O  2243. 

ty  ha'th  wrek,  thee  and  thy  wife,  D  685. 

ef  a  vyn,  he  will,  O  2427. 

ef  hag  ol,  he  and  all,  D  636. 

hy  a  torse,  she  would  break,  O  2174. 

ny  a'n  tregh,  we  will  cut  it,  O  2533. 

why  a'n  pren,  you  shall  pay  it,  R  621. 

why  losels,  you  rogues,  D  2589. 

y  a'n  guanas,  they  pierced  him,  R  1117. 

Hy  sometimes  stands  for  the  neuter,  where  in  English 
we  should  use  '  it ;'  as,  kyns  hy  bos  nos,  "  before  it  be 
night,"  O  2769. 

When  the  personal  pronouns  come  after  verbs, 
they  take  the  second  state ;  in  most  of  the  following 
examples  they  come  after  imperatives :  as, 

gas  vy,  let  me,  O  2703. 
guyth  vy,  preserve  me,  R 1564. 

C  2 


28  CORNISH   GRAMMAR. 

the  naghe  gy,  to  deny  thee,  R  1156. 

kychough  ef,  catch  him,  D  1007. 

gorreugh  ef,  put  him,  R  2077. 

synsew  e,  hold  him,  D  1086. 

lath  e,  kill  him,  D  2356. 

hertheugh  hy,  thrust  her,  R  2295. 

lath  ny,  kill  us,  O  972. 

na  blamyowg  ny,  do  not  blame  us,  R  649. 

ffor  y,  put  them,  O  334. 

gura  y,  make  them,  D  2674. 

In  the  following  examples  they  follow  verbs  used 
as  conditionals  or  subjunctives,  or  they  are  used  by 
way  of  emphasis,  or  perhaps  merely  from  the  neces- 
sities of  metre :  as, 

ny  welafvy,  I  do  not  see,  R  1962. 

ma  thyllyfvy,  that  I  go,  R  182. 

may  fy the  gy,  that  thou  mayest  be,  O  1327. 

prag  y  whruste  sy,  why  didst  thou?  O  277. 

may  tebbro  ef,  that  he  may  eat,  O  200. 

bysmay  cothe  hy,  until  she  fall,  O  2718. 

fat  el  wrussyn  ny,  how  that  we  did,  R  1341. 

dun  ny,  let  us  go,  O  2325. 

ny  wreugh  why,  ye  do  not,  O  317. 

may  fewg  why,  that  ye  may  be,  O  1163. 

may  fens  y,  that  they  may  be,  O  1833. 

may  fans  y,  that  they  may  be,  O  2424. 

When  the  personal  pronoun  is  the  object  of  a 
verb  in  the  indicative  or  subjunctive  mood,  in  which 
case  the  verb  is  usually  preceded  by  a  particle 
ending  with  a  vowel,  the  pronoun  is  abbreviated  as 
in  the  third  column,  and  affixed  to  the  particle, 
making  one  word  with  it.  In  this  book  the  particle 
is  separated  from  the  pronoun  by  an  apostrophe  for 
the  guidance  of  the  reader,  as  is  done  in  Welsh, 
though  no  such  division  is  found  in  the  Manuscripts. 
Examples : — 

del  y'm  kyrry,  as  thou  lovest  me,  O  2403. 
aban  y'm  sawyas,  since  he  healed  me,  O  1774. 


PRONOUNS.  29 

me  a'th  cusyl,  I  advise  thee,  R  1130. 

my  a'dpys,  I  pray  thee,  O  2521. 

an  laddron  a'n  dyalas,  the  thieves  mocked  him,  R  1426. 

ha  re'n  dros,  and  hast  brought  him,  O  282. 

my  ny'n  guylys,  I  did  not  see  him,  D  1286. 

my  a's  guy sk,  I  will  strike  her,  O  2709. 

my  a's  henow,  I  name  her,  O  1 14. 

hag  a'n  doro,  and  will  bring  us,  O  225. 

re'n  sawye,  may  it  save  us,  O  1088. 

mar  a's  guel,  if  he  see  you,  D  1003. 

my  a's  gueres,  I  will  cure  you,  O  2017. 

me  a's  ygor,  I  will  open  them,  R  638. 

mar  ny's  cafaf,  if  I  find  them  not,  R  647. 

homma  re's  holhas,  she  has  washed  them,  D  520. 

There  is  an  indeterminateness  about  the  pronouns 
in  this  state,  n  signifying  "  him"  as  well  as  "  us," 
and  s  belonging  to  three  different  persons ;  this 
has  probably  led  writers  in  most  cases  to  take  the 
possessive  forms,  either  directly  or  with  some  modi- 
fication, in  the  first  and  second  persons  plural ;  as, 
ef  a  gan  formyas,  "  he  created  us,"  R  2430 ;  a 
gan  gruk,  "who  made  us  all,"  R  1975;  y  gen 
lowenhas,  "  he  gladdened  us,"  R  1444 ;  my  a  gas 
pys,  "  I  pray  you,"  O  2346  ;  re  ges  bo,  "  be  it  on 
you,"  0  2585 ;  ma  gys  byth,  "  that  there  be  to 
you,"  0  348. 

When  a  personal  pronoun  comes  before  a  verb  as 
its  complement,  without  such  particle  as  is  men- 
tioned in  the  preceding  paragraph,  it  takes  the 
form  of  the  possessive.  Examples : — 

re  ruk  ow  tholle  (tolle),  hath  deceived  me,  O  286. 

the  rewardye  my  a  ra,  I  will  reward  thee,  O  2310. 

me  ny  fynnaf  y  grygy  (crygy\  I  will  not  believe  it,  R 

1047. 

greugh  y  tenne,  do  ye  drag  him,  R  2232. 
worth  hy  thempte  (temple),  to  tempt  her,  O  303. 
hyfrenne  (prenne),  to  take  it,  R  2234. 
worth  agan  dry  alemma,  for  carrying  us  hence,  R  151. 


30  CORNISH  GRAMMAR. 

ef  a  ruk  agan  dyfen,  he  did  forbid  us,  O  182. 
agan  cuthe  guren,  let  us  cover  ourselves,  O  254. 
pan  wruge  ages  danvon,  when  I  did  send  you,  0913. 
war  beyn  agas  bos  lethys,  on  pain  that  you  be  killed, 

O  2556. 

my  a  vyn  aga  threhy  (trehy),  I  will  cut  them,  O  1735. 
ago  guelas  o  trueth,  to  see  them  was  pitiful,  R  899. 

These  pronouns  may  in  fact  be  considered  as 
possessives,  coming  as  they  do  before  infinitives, 
which  are  really  verbal  nouns. 


§.17.  Pronouns  with  Prepositions. 

Many  prepositions  coalesce  with  the  pronouns 
which  they  govern,  forming  with  them  one  word. 
In  this  case  some  euphonic  artifice  is  used  to  unite 
the  two  elements  into  a  well-sounding  compound :  a 
consonant  is  doubled  or  omitted,  or  a  syllable  is 
added,  and  the  vowels  undergo  the  changes  de- 
scribed in  §.3.  I  give  here  examples  of  the  various 
modes ;  and  it  will  be  seen  that  the  pronouns  are 
represented  in  these  compounds  by  the  following 
letters:  m  or/,  "me;"  s,  "thee;"  o,  "him;"  y, 
"her;"  n,  "us;"  ugh,  "you;"  e,  "them,"  as 
given  in  the  fourth  column  of  the  table  in  the  pre- 
ceding section. 

The  prepositions  exemplified  are  yn,  "  in  ;"  rag, 
"  for,  before ;"  dre,  "  by,  through  ;"  gans,  "  by, 
with;"  war,  "upon;"  a,  "from;"  the,  "to;" 
orth  or  worth,  "towards." 

yn,  in.  rag,  for,  before. 

ynnof,  in  me,  R  707.  ragof,  for  me,       O  139. 

ynnos,  in  thee,  R  757.  ragos,  for  thee,     O  260. 

ynno,  in  him,  D  2157.  ragtho,  for  him,    R  1251. 

ynny,  in  her,  D  2164.  ragthy,  for  her. 

ynnon,  in  us,  R  1321.  ragon,  for  us,  D  174. 


PRONOUNS. 


31 


ynnough,  in  you. 

ynne,  in  them,      O  2457. 


dre,  by,  through. 

drethof,  by  me,    O  134. 
dr ethos,  by  thee,   R  2220. 
dretho,  by  him,     R  1756. 
dry  thy,  by  her,  O  1668. 
drethon,  by  us. 
drethough,  by  you. 
drethe,  by  them,  O  1958. 


ragough,  for  you,  D  27. 
ragthe,  for  them,  O  2456. 

ro^ras  in  O  1723,  1724,  D 
265,  &c.  has  certainly  no- 
thing to  do  with  ray,  but 
is  contracted  from  re  agas. 

gans,  by,  with. 

genef,  by  or  with  me,  O  2192. 
genes,  . .  with  thee,  O  2169. 
ganso,  . .  with  him,  R  744. 
gynsy,  . ,  with  her,  O  2764. 
genen,  . .  with  us,  O  2378. 
geneugh,,.  with  you,  R  1797. 
ganse,  ..  with  them,  O  1613. 

gynef,  D  564.  gynen,  Ri347- 
genaf,  O  672.  genogh,  D  184. 
gynes,  D  191.  gansse,  01373. 


war,  upon. 

warnaf,  upon  me,  O  1344. 
warnas,  upon  thee,  O  1015. 
warnotho,  upon  him,  O  1539. 
warnethy,  upon  her,  O  775. 
warnan,  upon  us,  O  1700. 
warnough,  upon  you,  R  1535. 
warnethe,  upon  them,  D  2686. 


warnogh,  D  2626. 


thym, 

thys, 

thotho, 

thethy, 

thyn, 

theugh, 

thethe, 


the,  to. 

O  2286. 
R  1473. 
O  2500. 
O  2755. 
R 1483. 
D  2500. 
O 1824. 


a,  from,  of. 

ahanaf,  from  me, 
ahanas,  from  thee, 
anotho,  from  him, 
anethy,  from  her, 
ahanan,  from  us, 
ahanough,  from  you, 
annethe,  from  them, 

ahanes,  O  406. 
annotho,  O  200. 
annethy,  O  218. 


dym,     D  741,  to  me. 
dys,     O  1969,  to  thee. 
dotho,  R  1445,  to  him. 
dethy,  D  2202,  to  her. 
dyn,     R  2361,  to  us. 
deugh,  to  you. 

dethe,  R  2600,  to  them. 


D  306. 
R  1408. 
R743. 
0923. 
O  1101. 
R  1500. 
0  1952. 


thyugh,  O  2399,    theygh,  D  4;    thy,  D  2246,    dy,  D  124. 


32  CORXISH   GRAMMAR. 

worth,  orth,  at,  to,  against. 

worthy/,  O  170.  orthyf,  O  2524,  to  me. 

worthys,  R  1570.  orthys,  to  thee. 

worto,  O  222.  orto,  R  1343,  to  him. 

worty,  O  293,  03069.  orfy,  O  2173,  to  her. 

worthy n,  R  1211.  orthyn,  O  212,  to  us. 

worthough,  R  1171.  ortheugh,  R  195,  to  you. 

toorfe,  O  2476.  orte,  to  them. 

Some  of  these  forms  receive  an  additional  syl- 
lable, either  by  way  of  emphasis,  or  for  filling  up  a 
line ;  we  have  thymmo,  0  2256,  or  thymo,  0  2333, 
"to  me;"  thyso,  0  2433,  or  dyso,  0  2191,  "to 
thee  ;"  thynny,  "  to  us,"  R  626.  Sometimes  the 
pronoun  is  repeated  in  the  second  state,  as  thymmo 
vy,  R  446 ;  thyso  gy,  O  2246 ;  dyso  sy,  O  842 ; 
ynno  ef,  R  2387 ;  worty  hy}  0  269 ;  thynny  ny, 
R  568 ;  theugwhy  why,  02209;  annethe  y,  O 
1952. 


§.18.  Possessive  Pronouns. 

These  pronouns  are  placed  in  the  last  column  of 
the  table  in  p.  27,  but  are  repeated  here  for  con- 
venience : — ow*,  "  my ;"  the11,  "  thy ;"  y*-,  "  his  ;" 
y3,  "  her ;"  agan,  "  our  ;"  agas,  "  your ;"  ago?, 
"  their ;"  and  the  pronoun  of  the  second  state  may 
or  may  not  follow  the  noun. 

ou  thermyn  (termyn),  my  time,  O  2344. 

owferyl  (peryl)  vy,  my  peril,  O  197. 

the  vap  (map),  thy  son,  O  2341. 

y  gorf  (corf),  his  body,  O  2367. 

y  voth  (both)  ef,  his  will,  O  483. 

y  feghas  (peghas),  her  sins,  D  528. 

hy  huth  (cuth)  hy,  her  affliction,  O  297. 

agan  lef,  our  voice,  O  2027. 

agan  arluth  ny,  our  Lord,  R  1655. 

agen  ehen,  our  class,  O  2066. 


PRONOUNS.  33 

agas  myghtern,  your  king,  O  2348. 
agys  crygyans,  your  belief,  R  2389. 
ages  ancow,  your  death,  R  612. 
ages  guyth  why,  your  keeping,  R  651. 
aga  threys  (treys},  their  feet,  O  760. 

The  possessive,  like  the  personal  pronouns,  com- 
bine with  certain  prepositions  :  chiefly  a,  "  of "  or 
"  from  ;"  yn,  "  in/'  and  the,  "  to ;"  also  with  the 
conjunction  ha,  "and;"  ow  is  then  changed  to  m, 
making  thu'm,  "  to  my/'  (distinct  from  thym,  "  to 
me/')  y'm,  "in  my;"  a'm,  "of  my;"  ha'm,  "and 
my."  The,  "  thy/'  throws  away  the  vowel  in  the 
same  cases;  the  other  possessives,  beginning  with 
vowels,  suffer  no  change,  except  that  agas  and  agan 
may  lose  the  initial  vowel.  I  do  not  know  whether 
agan,  "of  our,"  agas,  "of  your,"  should  be  so 
written,  or  a  gan,  a  gas;  they  should  be  joined 
perhaps  in  the  ordinary  genitive,  which  requires 
no  preposition,  and  divided  where  a  means  rather 
"  out  of"  or  "  from."  See  p.  1 6. 

Thum  gulas,  to  my  country,  R  879. 

y'm  colon,  in  my  heart,  R  760. 

a'm  offryn,  of  my  offering,  O  530. 

a'm  cleves,  of  my  malady,  O  2631. 

ha'm  gorty,  and  my  husband,  O  181. 

the'th  corf,  to  thy  body,  R  487. 

a'dpehosow,  of  thy  sins,  O  2259. 

y'th  tour,  in  thy  palace,  O  2389. 

ha'th  vaw  (maw),  and  thy  boy,  D  2236. 

a'y  passon,  of  his  passion,  R  759. 

th'y  wleth  (guleth),  to  his  kingdom,  O  2370. 

th'y  thyskyblon  (dyskyblon),  to  his  disciples,  R  794. 

ha'y  volnogeth  (bolnogeth),  and  his  will,  O  2352. 

ha'y  avalow,  and  its  fruits,  O  176. 

th'agan  dysyr,  to  our  desire,  R  1206. 

d'agan  arluth,  to  our  lord,  O  2580. 

y  gen  lyfryow,  in  our  books,  R  2411. 

a  gys  company,  of  your  company,  D  868. 

y  ges  golok,  into  your  sight,  R  1861. 

°3 


34  CORNISH   GRAMMAR. 

war  gasflehes,  on  your  children,  D  2643. 
h'agas  myghtern,  and  your  king,  O  2348. 
Vaga  hynwyn,  and  their  names,  O  35. 

A  possessive  followed  by  Jionan  (honon)  becomes 
the  more  intense  personality  which  we  render  by 
"  myself,  himself,"  &c.  I  do  not  think  it  is  ever 
the  reflected  pronoun. 

my  a  vyn  mos  ow  hon^n,  I  will  go  myself,  D  87. 

ow  colon  ow  honan,  my  heart  of  myself,  or  my  own 

heart,  R  2042. 
the  honan,  thyself,  O  1455. 
the  honyn,  thyself,  O  345. 
y  honan,  himself,  R  2065,  2073. 
agan  honan,  ourselves,  O  16. 
agas  honon,  yourselves,  D  545. 
ages  honan,  yourselves,  R  642. 


§.  19.  Demonstratives. 

The  adjectival  demonstrative  pronouns  are  ma 
(me)  and  na  (ne),  suffixed  to  the  substantive  they 
refer  to.  I  have,  in  the  text,  divided  them  from 
their  substantives  with  a  hyphen,  but  in  the  Manu- 
script they  are  written  in  one  word.  There  is  no 
distinction  between  singular  and  plural.  Example  : 

yn  bys-ma,  in  this  world,  O  1886. 
an  guel-ma,  these  rods,  O  1739. 
yn  ur-na,  in  that  hour,  D  1899. 
yn  wlas-na,  in  that  country,  R  2461. 
yn  uur-ne,  in  that  hour,  D  1372. 

Sometimes  Teeth  is  added,  to  make  the  demon- 
strative more  definite,  as, 

an  keth  den-ma,  this  very  man,  D  1590. 
an  keth  deu-na,  that  same  God,  O  1485. 
an  keth  re-na,  those  very  (persons),  O  1879. 

Sometimes  the  m  is  doubled,  as  in  dremme,  "this 
town/'  O  2284;  dremma,  "these  places,"  0  2771 ; 


PRONOUNS.  35 

chymma,  D  66  j,  chemma,  R  1397,  "  this  house j" 
and  a  lemma,  "  from  this  place,"  0  446.  Alemma, 
"  from  this  place/'  and  alena,  "  from  that  place/' 
are  in  frequent  use  as  adverbs,  meaning  "  hence" 
and  "  thence." 

The  substantive   demonstratives  distinguish  the 
masculine  from  the  feminine : — 

hem  or  hemma,  m.  horn  or  homma,  f.,  this. 
hen  or  henna,  m.  hon  or  honna,  f.,  that. 

Examples — 

hem  yu  marth,  this  is  a  miracle,  R  654. 

me  a  dyp  bos  hemma,  I  swear  this  is,  R  2508. 

homma  keffrys,  this  (woman)  also,  D  519. 

hen  yu  ffuyr,  that  is  true,  R  977. 

y  volnogeth  yu  henna,  his  will  is  that,  O  2352. 

hon  yu  cusylfyn,  that  is  fine  advice,  O  2041. 

guyr  vres  yu  honna,  a  true  judgment  is  that,  D  515. 

honna  yw  ol  the  vlamye,  she  is  all  to  blame,  O  266. 


§.  20.  Interrogative  Pronouns. 

The  Interrogative  Pronouns  are  all  resolvable  to 
py  and  pa,  "  who/'  "  what." 

pan  vernans,  what  (is)  the  death  ?  R  2047.  —pa  +  an. 

pa  han  pleyt,  what  (is)  the  plight  ?  R  2058. 

pandra  wylly,  what  dost  thou  see  ?  O  801.  =pa  +  an  +  dra. 

pendra  wreth,  what  wilt  thou  do  ?  R  203. 

py  nyl  a  mogha  sengys,  which  one  was  most  bound  t 

Dgio. 
py  gymmys  hys,  what  amount  of  length  ?  O  2104. 

When  the  pronoun  '  who '  comes  without  addition, 
it  appears  to  be  rendered  by  pyu,  or  pyw,  either  in 
the  nominative  or  the  accusative,  as, 

pyu  a  ylta  gy  bones,  who  canst  thou  be  ?  R  2511. 
pyw  a  whyleugh,  whom  seek  ye  ?  D  1109. 


36  CORNISH  GRAMMAR. 

but  generally  pyu  is  equivalent  to  py  yu,  "  who  is," 
as, 

pyu  myghtern  a  lowene,  who  is  the  King  of  joy  ?  R  106. 
pyu  henna,  who  is  that  ?  R  2487. 

The  addition  of  pynag  makes  the  pronoun  inde- 
finite : — 

py  penag  vo,  whatever  it  be,  O  1154. 
pe  penag  vo,  whatever  it  be,  O  662. 
py  le  penag,  whatever  place,  D  1551. 
pyu  penagh  a  len  grysso,   whoever  faithfully  believes,  R 
2466. 

This  receives  sometimes  the  addition  of  ol,  "  all." 

py  penag  ol  a  sconyo,  whoever  may  object,  O  2388. 
py  penag  ol  a  wharf o,  whatever  may  happen,  R  671. 

When  the  p  is  doubled,  as  in  puppenagol,  peppenagol, 
I  think  the  first  syllable  is  pup  or  peb,  "all." 

Now  and  then  pynag  comes  alone,  as, 

pynag  a  wharf  o  an  cas,  whatever  may  be  the  case,  0 1698. 

pynag  afo,  whatever  it  be,  R  2000. 

pynak  vo  lettrys  py  lek,  whoever  he  be,  lettered  or  lay, 

D68t. 
penag  a  wryllyf  amme,  whomsoever  I  shall  kiss,  D  1084. 


§.  21.    Relative  Pronouns. 

The  Relative  Pronoun  is  represented  by  a  and 
nep  (neb] ;  as, 

a  fue  genys,  who  was  born,  D  1652. 

a   wruk  Moyses   the  planse,   which   Moyses   did   plant, 

O  1946. 

tas  a  wruk  nef,  the  Father  who  made  heaven,  O  1785. 
Urry  nep  o  marrek  len,  Uriah,  who  was  a  trusty  knight, 

O  2338. 

neb  a  glewsys,  whom  thou  didst  hear,  O  224. 
the  nep  yu  toy  ow  colon,  thou  who  art  the  joy  of  my  heart, 

R456. 


PRONOUNS.  37 

Nep  often  includes  the  antecedent,  like  the  Latin 
qui : — 

neb  yu  moghya,  he  who  is  greatest,  D  792. 

ha  nep  na'n  gruk,  and  he  who  has  not  done  it,  R  158. 

When  the  relative  is  in  the  accusative  case,  or  is 
governed  by  a  preposition,  a  personal  pronoun  in 
the  required  case  is  sometimes  put  after  the  verb, 
as  in  the  Semitic  languages  :  "  whom  I  saw"  is 
made  "  who  I  saw  him ;"  "  to  whom  I  spoke," 
"  who  I  spoke  to  him :"  as, 

a  thanfonas  e,  whom  he  sent,  D  1692. 

py  gansse,  by  whom,  D  1373  (i.  e.  who  by  them). 

The  relative  is  often  omitted,  as  in  English  : 

ou  thus  us  gene,  my  people  who  are  with  me,  D  1122. 
the  vap  Ysac  yw  the  ioy,  thy  son  Isaac,  who  is  thy  joy, 

o  1374- 

yn  le  na  fue  den  bythqueth,  in  a  place  where  man  never 
was,  D  3135. 

Nep  is  also  an  indefinite  pronoun  : — 
yn  nep  f os,  in  any  wall,  O  2458. 

See  also  nep  peyth  a  oel  a  vercy,  "  some  of  the 
oil  of  mercy/'  0327;  nebes,  in  D  208, 495,  is  pro- 
bably a  mere  contraction  of  nep  peyth. 

Myns  may  be  considered  as  a  relative  pronoun, 
including  in  itself  the  antecedent  *  all,'  like  our 
word  '  whatever.' 

keusyns  den  myns  a  vynno,  let  a  man  say  all  that  he  will, 

R  2448. 

hag  ol  myns  o,  and  every  thing  that  was,  R  127. 
myns  yu  guyryon,  whoever  are  innocent,  R  763. 
rak  kuthe  myns  us  formyys,  to  cover  all  that  is  created, 

O  22. 

ty  a  fyth  mens  a  vynny,  thou  shalt  have  whatever  thou 
wilt,  D  590. 

j  kymmys,  "  as  many  as/'  or  "  whoso- 


38  CORNISH   GRAMMAR. 

ever,11  the  Armoric  kement  and  Welsh  cymmaint, 
is  frequently  used : 

kemmys  re  wruk  both  ow  thas,  as  many  as  have  done  the 

will  of  my  father,  R  157. 
Jcemmys  na  greysa,  whoever  believes  not,  R  176. 

It  is  used  as  a  substantive  in  py  gymmys  hys, 
"what  amount  of  length/1  0  2104. 

Kynyver  is  like  kemmys  : — kynyver  peyn  us  yn 
beys,  "  any  punishment  there  is  in  the  world," 
R  2055 ;  kynyver  best  us  yn  tyr,  "  as  many  beasts 
as  are  in  the  world/'  0  1215  ;  see  O  1029. 

Suel  is  another  relative  rarely  used ;  the  "Welsh 
sawl.  I  find  only  one  case  of  its  employment :  py 
suel  a  vynnyth,  "  whatever  thou  wilt/'  D  592. 

It  is  possible  that  sul  a  the'n  nef'm  R  136,,  (sul 
for  suel,}  which  I  have  made  "  going  up  to  heaven," 
may  be  "  who  is  going  to  heaven."  In  Mount  Cal- 
vary suel  is  used  at  least  three  times:  in  2.  i.a 
and  79.  2,  where  we  have  suell  a  vynno,  it  means 
"  he  who  ;"  in  119.  4,  suel  a  ivresse,  "  that  which.11 


§.  22.  Miscellaneous  Pronouns, 

The  following  have  been  observed  in  going  over 
the  text,  but  it  is  not  believed  that  these  are  all. 

"The  one"  and  "the  other/'  when  opposed,  are 
sometimes  made  by  nyl  and  gyle : — an  nyl  a  delle 
pymp  cans,  ha  hanter  cans  y  gyle,  "  the  one  owed 
five  hundred,  and  a  half  hundred  the  other/'  D 
504, 506  ;  me  a  gylm  an  nyl,  ha  me  a  gylm  y  gyle, 
"  I  will  bind  the  one,  and  I  will  bind  the  other/' 
D  2785,  2788. 

a  Misprinted  cuell,  which  misled  Zeuss. 


PRONOUNS.  39 

Sometimes  "the  other"  is  made  by  aral,  in 
plural  erel: — an  nyl  torn  y  fyth  re  hyr,  tres  aral 
re  got,  "  at  one  hand  it  is  too  long,  by  the  other  too 
short/'  O  2548,  2549. 

Aral  is  always  used  with  a  substantive  : 

ioseph  ha  tus  erel,  Joseph  and  other  persons,  R.3- 
en  thyu  grous  erel,  the  two  other  crosses,  D  2820. 
pie  kefyr  dyu  grous  aral,  where  may  two  other  crosses  be 
found,  D  2576. 

In  this  last  example  aral  may  be  put  in  the  sin- 
gular for  the  sake  of  the  rhyme  ;  this  would  be  ad- 
missible in  consequence  of  the  singular  form  of  the 
preceding  word  after  a  numeral ;  as  also  in  lyes 
pro/us  aral,  "many  other  prophets,"  R  1485. 

In  Armoric.  eben  is  used  for  "  the  other,"  when 
feminine ;  and  I  believe  the  following  lines  contain 
cases  of  a  similar  pronoun  in  Cornish  : — 

My  a  dyl  tol  rak  hybeen,  "  I  will  bore  a  hole  for 
the  other,"  D  2749,  follows  a  line  by  another 
speaker,  me  a  teyl  tol  rag  an  nyl,  "  I  will  bore  a 
hole  for  the  one,"  D  2743.  As  the  allusion  is  to 
the  feminine  noun  luef,  "the  hand,"  there  cannot 
be  much  doubt  in  the  case. 

In  why  drehevough  ybeyn,  "you  raise  the  other," 
D  2826,  the  case  is  not  so  sure,  because  the  allu- 
sion may  be  either  to  the  man  or  the  cross ;  both 
are  mentioned,  but  crous  is  a  feminine  noun. 

In  the  third  case,  ty  a  theg  a  neyl  pen,  cachaf 
yben,  "  thou  carry  one  end,  I  will  seize  the  other," 
0  2816,  pen  is  masculine  ;  so  that  either  the  Corn- 
ish does  not  follow  the  Armoric,  or  the  last  clause 
will  awkwardly  mean  "  I  will  seize  its  end."" 

The  word  ken,  which  is  usually  a  conjunction, 
as  in  D  481,  is  also  used  for  ( other ;'  as, 

nag  us  ken  deu  agesos,  there  is  no  other  God  than  thou, 
R  2477- 


40  CORXISH   GRAMMAR, 

a  wylsta  ken,  dost  them  see  any  other  thing,  O  795- 
the  ken  pow,  to  another  country,  R  2218. 
yn  ken  lyw,  in  another  colour,  R  2534. 

"Any"  is  made  by  nep,  which  is  placed  before 
the  substantive  it  refers  to  ;  as, 
yn  nep  maner,  in  any  way,  R  497. 
yn  neb  gulas,  in  any  land,  O  1120. 
yn  nep  f os,  in  any  wall,  O  2458. 

"  Any "  may  also  be  made  by  by th,  placed  after 
the  substantive ;  as, 

den  vyth,  O  2457,  or  dwfyth,  any  man,  D  1481. 
trumeth  vyth,  any  mercy,  O  1650. 

mar  quren  fiogh  vyth  denythy,  if  we  do  any  children  pro- 
duce, O  390. 

01  added  to  byth  makes  it  more  indefinite,  as, 

den  byth  ol,  any  man  whatever,  R2i69- 
onan  vyth  ol,  any  one  of  them,  O  1697. 
mar  pyth  drok  vyth  ol  gureys,  if  any  evil  is  done,  O  601. 

Pup,  "  all,"  is  used  alone,  or  with  a  substantive ; 
and  sometimes  with  the  addition  of  ol : — 
yn  pup  tra,  in  all  things,  O  2354. 
guetyeugh  pup  y  worthye,  take  care  all  to  worship  it,  O 

2555. 

pup  den  ol,  all  men,  O  1043,  D  1905. 
war  pep  ol  marnas  ty,  over  all  but  thee,  O  948. 
gans  pup  ol,  by  every  body,  R  1096. 
pup  huny,  every  one,  O  969,  2017. 

01  is  used  in  the  same  way  : 
gulan  yu  ol,  all  are  clean,  D  864. 
ol  the  chy,  all  thy  house,  O  2340. 
arluth  dres  ol  an  bys-ma,  lord  above  all  this  world,  01683. 

Kettep,  "  every :" 

marow  vethyn  kettep  pen,  dead  we  shall  be  every  head, 

O  1655. 

yn  kettep  pen,  every  head,  D  762. 
kettep  onan,  every  one,  D  2821. 


VERBS.  41 

Lyes,  lues,  "many,"  is  used  with  a  substantive 
singular  : — 

yn  lyes  le,  in  many  places,  D  749. 

ynno  lues  trygva,  in  it  many  dwellings,  O  951. 

lyes  prof  us  oral,  many  other  prophets,  R  1485. 

Re  is  like  a  substantive,  meaning  "persons"  or 
"  things :" 

an  re-ma  yu  oberys,  these  (things)  are  made,  O  15. 
cafus  re  me  a  vyn,  take  those  (persons)  I  will,  R  184. 
an  Jceth  re-na,  these  same  (men),  O  1897. 
the  wruthyl  gans  an  re-na,  to  do  with  them,  D  182. 


§.  23.  VERBS. 

The  Cornish  verb,  in  conjugation,  in  forms,  and 
in  the  number  and  use  of  its  tenses,  approaches 
more  nearly  to  the  Armoric  than  to  the  Welsh  verb, 
though  some  of  its  forms  are  more  like  those  of  the 
latter  dialect. 

Every  verb  may  be  conjugated  in  three  different 
modes ;  in  the  first,  which  I  call  the  Inflected  con- 
jugation, every  tense  and  person  has  its  own  form, 
as  in  Latin  and  Greek,  and  it  is  equally  rare  to  find 
a  personal  pronoun  used  as  it  is  in  those  languages ; 
it  is  not  done  unless  emphasis  be  required ;  as,  my 
ny  gresaf,  "  I  will  not  believe  (if  you  do),  R  904. 

The  present  tense  of  the  verb  care,  "  to  love," 
is  in  this  mode  of  conjugating  made,  caraf,  keryth, 
car,  keryn,  carough,  carans. 

In  the  second  mode,  which  Breton  grammarians 
call  the  Impersonal  conjugation,  the  third  person 


42  CORNISH  GRAMMAR. 

singular  is  taken  for  the  whole  tense,  and  the 
persons  are  distinguished  by  the  added  pronoun,  as 
in  English  and  French.  The  present  tense  is  thus, 
my  a  gar,  ty  a  gar,  ef  a  gar,  ny  a  gar,  why  a 
gar,  y  a  gar ;  car  becomes  gar  by  the  influence  of 
the  affirmative  a2,  used  when  the  subject  precedes 
the  verb. 

In  the  third  mode,  which  may  be  conveniently 
called  the  Compound  conjugation,  the  auxiliary 
"  to  do"  accompanies  the  verb  to  be  conjugated, 
precisely  in  the  same  manner  as  is  done  in  the 
English,  "  I  do  love/'  &c.  The  sole  difference  is, 
that  the  Cornish  extends  this  addition  of  the  auxi- 
liary verb  to  cases  where  we  do  not  use  it ;  saying 
not  only  "  I  do  love"  and  "  I  did  love,"  but  also 
"  I  will  do  love."  The  first  tense  would  thus  be 
generally,  my  a  wra  care,  "  I  do  love,"  ty  a  wra 
care,  "  thou  dost  love  ;"  and  if  used  personally, 
which  is  less  frequently  done,  guraf  care,  gureth 
care,  &c. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  these  various  modes 
show  a  corruption  in  the  language,  which  the  more 
classical  Welsh  would  disdain ;  but  it  appears  prac- 
tically to  have  conferred  facilities  in  the  expres- 
sion of  certain  modifications  of  meaning,  akin  to 
those  we  find  in  English  from  the  use  of  '  might/ 
'  could/  '  would/  '  should/  &c.,  which  the  stiffer 
forms  of  Latin,  or  even  German,  would  hardly  ad- 
mit of. 

§.  24.  We  may  here  notice  what  are  called  by 
Zeuss  the  verbal  particles,  y2,  a2,  and  re"-.  Y  and 
a  are  used  only  in  affirmative  sentences,  and  the 
chief  difference  I  find  between  them  is  that  a  is 
used  where  the  nominative  case  precedes  the  verb, 
as  in  me  a  wra  [gura],  "  I  will  do,"  R  1755  ;  efa 


TENSES.  43 

vynse  (mynse),  "  he  would  have  wished,"  0  2224 ; 
urry  afyth  (byth)  lethys,  "  Uriah  shall  be  killed," 
O  2 1 23  ;  and  y  where  the  nominative  either  follows 
or  is  omitted ;  as,  y  fyen  lethys,  "  I  should  be 
killed,"  0  2120;  y  ma  moyses  pel  gyltys,  "  Moses 
is  gone  far,"  0  1682. 

I  did  not  discover  until  a  good  deal  of  the  work 
was  printed,  that  yth,  which  frequently  occurs,  is  a 
mere  euphonic  change  of  y  before  a  vowel :  see  yth 
argliaf,  "  I  command,"  6381;  yth  ymwanas,  "  he 
stabbed  himself,"  R  2065  ;  yth  emwyskys,  "  he 
smote  himself,"  R  2067  ;  yth  of,  "  I  will  go,"  R 
2400,  &c.  &c.  In  ythanwaf  (=yth  hanwaf,)  O 
123,  and  ytheuel,  0  19,  an  h  is  omitted;  see  yth 
heuel,  R  2491.  In  like  manner  the  participal  ow3 
(see  below,  in  the  participles,)  may  become  owth 
before  a  vowel,  as  in  outh  emloth,  D  2509,  owth 
ysethe,  D  2342,  outh  ymwethe,  ("craving,"  from 
the  "Welsh  ymhwedd)  R  1170,  owth  egery,  "open- 
ing," D  2999  ;  and  the  conjecture  hazarded  in  the 
note  on  D  932  will  be  well  founded.  As  in  the 
case  of  y,  there  is  the  omission  of  h  in  outhenwel 
(=outh  henwel),  0  2729. 

The  use  of  the  particle  re  will  be  given  under 
the  Third  tense 


§.25.   Tenses. 

There  are  five  tenses,  analogous  in  form,  though 
slightly  differing  in  value,  to  those  of  Welsh  and 
Armoric  verbs.  I  distinguish  them  by  numbers,  to 
avoid  any  ambiguity  which  might  attend  the  vary- 
ing practice  of  writers  on  Celtic  grammar.  No 
distinct  division  of  moods  is  made  here,  because 
many  of  the  forms  are  used  as  indicatives  as  well  as 
subjunctives. 


44  CORNISH   GRAMMAR. 

The  First  tense  is  used  for  present  or  future  time. 
The  termination  of  the  first  person  was  of  in  the 
three  languages,  though  the  Bretons  now  write 
arm.  The  Welsh  use  this  tense  almost  always  as  a 
future,  expressing  the  present  by  a  periphrasis  : 
the  Bretons  keep  to  the  present  time,  and  use  the 
Fifth  tense  as  a  future  ;  in  Cornish  it  is  most  com- 
monly used  for  present  time :  the  frequent  use  of 
the  Compound  conjugation  enabled  the  Cornishman 
to  make  a  separate  future,  though  he  still  continued 
to  use  the  First  tense  for  future  time  occasionally. 
Taking  the  verb  care,  "  to  love,"  as  our  example, 
the  present  tense  is — 

caraf,  keryth,  car:  keryn,  carough,  carons. 

The  Second  tense  is  the  imperfect  of  Welsh  and 
Breton  grammarians ;  Zeuss  named  it  the  secondary 
present.  It  is  sometimes  used  as  an  indicative, 
sometimes  as  an  optative  or  subjunctive,  a  potential 
Or  a  conditional.  This  vagueness  is  unnecessary  in 
Cornish,  because  the  Compound  conjugation  gives  a 
fair  conditional ;  but  the  Cornish  writers  neverthe- 
less retained  the  variety  of  meaning  occasionally 
with  the  simple  form,  and  even  confounded  it  with 
the  Fourth  tense.  The  first  person  ends  with  en  in 
Cornish,  enn  in  Arrnoric,  and  wn  in  Welsh.  The 
whole  tense  is  made — 

caren,  cares,  care  (cara) :   caren,  careugh,  carens. 

The  Third  tense  is  the  Preterite,  and  its  use  is 
the  same  in  the  three  languages.  The  first  person 
ends  in  ys  in  Cornish,  ais  in  Welsh,  and  iz  in 
Armoric.  The  whole  tense  is — 

kerys,  kersys,  caras  :  kersyn,  carsough,  carsons(ans). 

The  Fourth  tense  is  named  the  Preterpluperfect 
in  Welsh  and  Armoric  ;  Zeuss  called  it  the  second- 
ary perfect.  Its  use  in  those  languages  is  in  ac- 


TENSES.  45 

cordance  with  its  name,  but  it  is  more  commonly 
employed  as  a  subjunctive  or  conditional.  In  Corn- 
ish, so  far  as  I  have  observed,  it  is  used  as  a  con- 
ditional only,  and  it  is  frequently  confounded  with 
the  second  tense.  The  first  person  in  Cornish  ends 
with  sen,  in  Welsh  with  swn,  in  Armoric  zenn.  The 
whole  tense  is — 

carsen,  curses,  carse  :  carsen,  carseugh,  carsens. 

The  Fifth  tense  is  a  subjunctive  present  or  future 
in  Cornish,  and  in  Welsh,  I  believe,  rather  future 
than  present ;  in  Armoric  it  is  the  Future  indica- 
tive. The  respective  terminations  of  the  first  person 
are  yf,  wyf,  if  (inn}.  The  plural  of  this  tense  is 
often  confounded  with  that  of  the  Second  tense,  and 
it  will  be  seen  generally  that  there  is  a  good  deal 
of  irregularity  in  the  inflections,  which  makes  the 
paradigm  given  rather  theoretically  than  practically 
exact.  The  whole  tense  is — 

kyryf,  kyry,  caro :  kyryn,  kyreugh,  carons. 

The  Imperative  is — 

car,  cares  or  carens  :  caren,  careugh,  carens. 

The  infinitive  takes  many  forms  ;  sometimes  it  is 
the  simple  root,  sometimes  a  vowel  is  added  to  the 
root,  and  sometimes  el,  es,  &c.  In  the  example 
given  here,  the  termination  is  e,  as  care. 

The  active  participle  is  made  by  prefixing  ow°, 
changing  a  sonant  initial  to  its  surd  form  ;  as  in 
Armoric,  where  o  talea,  "  delaying,"  is  from  dalea, 
"  to  delay." 

The  passive  participle  ends  in  ys,  as  kyrys. 

The  passive  verb  ends  in  er  or  yr,  which  by 
Welsh  analogy  should  designate  the  present  and 
future  tenses ;  but  I  find  no  difference  in  their  use ; 
er  is  far  more  frequent  than  yr;  the  past  tense 
ends  in  as,  and  a  conditional  is  found  in  ser. 


46  CORNISH   GRAMMAR. 

§.  26.  As  the  above  enumeration  differs  in  some 
degree  from  the  plan  of  Lhuyd,  I  shall  give  several 
examples  of  each  form  used,  when  there  is  any 
doubt. 

I.  Tense.  First  person : — gowegneth  ny  garaf 
(caraf),  "I  do  not  love  falsehood,"  R  906;  lava- 
raf  theugli  newothow,  "  I  will  tell  you  news/'  R 
894.  In  this  person /is  sometimes  omitted  for  the 
sake  of  rhyme ;  as,  ny  vynna,  "  I  will  not,"  0 
1330  ;  a  wela,  "  I  see/'  0  1396  :  lavara,  "  I  say/' 
O  1645,  D  i. 

Second  person :  —  ny  geusyth  (keusyth,  from 
cous],  "  thou  dost  not  speak/'  D  2181  ;  ny  a'n 
tregh  del  levereth,  "  we  will  cut  it  as  thou  sayest," 

0  2533  ;  ny'm  guelyth  arte,  "  thou  shalt  not  see 
me  again,"  0  244. 

Lhuyd  makes  i  the  termination ;  but  this  is  the  sub- 
junctive. 

Third  person : — neb  may  fe  moghya  geffys,  a 
gar  (car]  moghye,  "  he  who  is  forgiven  most,  loves 
most,"  D  513  ;  mar  kyf  carynnyas  y  tryg,  "if  he 
finds  carrion  he  will  stay/'  O  1103,  4. 

It  is  seen  by  these  examples  that  some  verbs  make  no 
change  in  this  form,  as  car;  while  others,  as  kyf  from 
caf,  are  subject  to  the  rule  of  §.  3,  notwithstanding 
the  absence  of  a  final  i,  which  is  quite  lost  in  the 
Cymric  dialects,  though  it  existed  in  the  old  Irish,  as 
cairi,  "  he  loves." 

First  person  plural : — ny  gemeryn  (kemeryn)  nep 
lowene,  "  we  take  not  any  pleasure,"  R  2365  ; 
amen  pigyn,  "  Amen,  we  pray,"  D  1 99  ;  leveryn 

01  thotho,  "we  will  all  say  to  him,"  D  2880. 

Lhuyd  makes  this  termination  on. 

Second  person  plural : — ny  wothough  (gothough] 


TENSES.  47 

ow  gorthyby,  "ye  knew  not  how  to  answer  me," 
D  1484 ;  prag  yth  hembrenkygh,  "  why  do  ye 
lead  ?  D  204. 

Lhuyd  ends  this  in  oh. 

Third  person  plural : — ny  wothons  (gothons)  py 
nyl  a  wrons,  "  they  know  not  what  they  do,"  D 
2774 ;    ny'n  cresons  ef  neffre,   "  they  will  never 
believe  it,"  O  1440. 
Lhuyd  writes  am. 

II.  Tense.  First  person  ;  Indicative  :  —  ny  wo- 
thyen  (gothyeii)  man,  "  I  did  not  know  at  all," 
R  2559 ;  byth  ny  wylyn  (guylyri),  I  did  not  see 
any  thing,"  R  434. 

Subjunctive:  a's  dysken,  "if  I  take  it  off,"  R 
1941  ;  a  quellen  (guelleii)  wyth,  "if  I  could  see 
once,"  0  685  ;  py  le  penag  y's  kyffyn,  "wherever 
I  find  a  place,"  D  1551. 

Conditional :  ru'm  fay  a'n  caffen,  "  by  my  faith 
I  would  take  him,"  R  289. 

Second  person;  Indicative: — nywothas  (gotTias), 
"thou  didst  not  know,"  D  2181 ;  why  lyes,  "thou 
wast  seeking,"  R  1680. 

Subjunctive,  &c. :  a  trycJces  yn  tre,  "  if  thou 
hadst  stayed  at  home,"  Ri38i;  (confusion  of  tense) 
ny  wothes  (gothes)  wheth,  "  thou  mayest  not  know 
yet,"  D  848  ;  beys  vynytha  y  ivharthes  (guar- 
thes),  "for  ever  thou  wouldst  laugh,"  0  153. 
See  also  D  2862,  2864,  for  conditionals  ending 
in  ys. 

Third  person  :  —  hacre  mernans  ny  gaffe  den, 
"  a  more  cruel  death  a  man  may  not  find,"  R  2074 ; 
byth  wel  cusyl  a  lavarre,  "  any  better  advice  who 
can  tell,"  R  422 ;  ru'm  gorre  ttiy  wlas,  "  may  he 
bring  me  to  his  country,"  0  53  2  ;  py  ptas  y  thy  lie, 
"  where  he  may  go,"  D  635 ;  kyn  y'n  carra, 


48  CORNISH   GRAMMAR. 

"though  he  may  love  him,"  R  1897  ;  pan  dre- 
menna  an  bys-ma,  "when  this  life  may  pass,  O 
875 ;  me  a'n  gafse  a  menne  gelwel,  "  I  would  for- 
give him  if  he  would  ask,"  D  1816;  war  Uiesu 
me  a  cryas  thymmo  gafe,  "I  cried  to  Jesus  that 
he  would  forgive  me,"  R  noo;  golow  na  wella 
(guella),  "that  he  may  not  see  light,"  R  2003. 

First  person  plural : — na  wrellen  buthy,  "  that 
we  be  not  drowned,"  0  1048 ;  bys  venytha  na  sor- 
ren,  "nor  should  we  be  troubled  for  ever,"  O  220. 

Such  forms  as  wreny,  D  190,  and  veny,  D  604,  are 
probably  orthographical  variations  of  wren  ny  and 
ven  ny. 

Second  person  plural: — mas  y'm  gorthebeugh, 
"  unless  ye  answer  me,"  R  47 ;  pysough  na  en- 
treugh  yn  temptacyon,  "pray  that  ye  enter  not 
into  temptation,"  D  1059. 

Third  person  plural : — avorow  thifs  may  teffens, 
"  that  they  come  to  thee  to-morrow,"  0  2417  ;  me 
a  vynse  a  talfens,  "  I  would  they  were  worth," 
D  211. 

I  believe  this  is  the  tense  which  Lhuyd  makes  mai  huel- 
lam,  huellaz,  huello,  huellan,  huelloh,  huellanz,  with 
the  exception  of  huello. 

III.  Tense.  First  person  : — ol  an  tekter  a  wylys 
(guylys),  "all  the  beauty  that  I  saw,"  0766; 
worto  y  keusys,  "  I  spoke  to  him,"  R  897  ;  y  vyrys 
y  wolyow,  ''  I  saw  his  wounds,"  R  898. 

Second  person  : — tersys  an  bara,  "  thou  didst 
break  the  bread,"  R  1318  ;  mab  deu  o  neb  a  wyl- 
sys  (gylsys],  "the  Son  of  God  it  was  whom  thou 
sawest,"  O  809. 

Lhuyd  makes  this  termination  yst,  which  is  Welsh 
rather  than  Cornish ;  the  Armoric  agrees  with  the 
Cornish  in  the  insertion  of  a  sibilant. 


TENSES.  49 

Third  person : — clewas  agan  lef,  "  he  heard  our 
voice,"  0  2027 ;  un  marrek  an  lathas,  "  a  horse- 
man slew  him/'  0  2226. 

I  am  inclined  to  think  that  dorrasa,  in  pan  dorrasa  an 
aval,  "  when  he  plucked  the  apple,"  O  879,  is  a 
subjunctive  form  of  this  tense,  as  in  the  irregulars 
wruge  and  thuhe. 

First  person  plural : — leveryn  del  wylsyn  (guyl- 
syii)  ny,  "  let  us  speak  as  we  saw/'  R  807 ;  an 
corf  a  worsyn  (gorsyri)  yn  beth,  "  the  body  which 
we  placed  in  the  tomb/'  R 49. 

Second  person  plural : — an  onor  a  wrussough 
(grussougli)  thy'mmo,  "  the  honour  which  you  did 
to  me/'  0312;  corf  a  worseugh  (gorseugh]  why, 
"the  body  which  you  placed,"  R  43. 

Third  person  plural : — -pan  y'n  lathsons,  "  when 
they  killed  him,"  D  3098  ;  ny  torsans  chy,  "  they 
did  not  break  the  house/'  R  662. 

The  addition  of  the  word  re2,  corresponding 
with  the  old  Welsh  ry,  re,  now  seldom,  if  ever, 
used,  (see  Williams's  Dosparth,  &c.  Llandovery, 
1856,  pp.  130,131,  and  Zeuss,  p.  420,)  turns  this 
tense  into  the  preterperfect,  and  was  of  frequent 
use  in  Cornish  :— - 

ef  re  gollas  an  plas,  he  hath  lost  the  place,  O  420. 

an  sarf  re  ruk  ou  tholle,  the  serpent  hath  deceived  me, 

O286. 

my  re  wruk  prenne,  I  have  redeemed,  R  2622. 
hy  re  gafes,  she  has  found,  O  1143. 

Re  is  also  frequently  found  with  the  third  person 
singular  of  the  Second  or  Fifth  tense,  in  the  impera- 
tive or  optative  sense  ;  as,  re'n  kergho  an  dewolow, 
"  let  the  devils  fetch  him,"  R,  2277  ;  re  wronntyo, 
"let  him  grant,"  0  1726;  re  bo,  "let  him  be/r 
R  2417;  re  by  gorthys,  "be  he  worshipped,"  R 


50  CORNISH   GRAMMAR. 

2523;  ru'm  gorre,  "may  he  bring  me,55  0532. 
It  often  occurs  in  the  phrase  ragas  bo,  for  re  agas 
bo,  and  once,  O  1724,  in  ragas  guytho.  In  O  2585 
it  is  written  re  ges  bo.  The  verb  eth,  "  he  went/5 
takes  s  after  re:  see  re  seth,  D  1027, 


IV.  Tense.  First  person  :  —  guelas  ow  map  y 
carsen,  "  I  would  love  to  see  my  son/'  R  442 ; 
desefsen  merwel,  "I  would  have  desired  to  die/' 
R  1771 ;  mensen,  "I  would  wish,"  R444. 

In  R  289,  290,  we  have  an  example  of  the  confusion  be- 
tween this  and  the  Third  tense  :  a'n  caffen,  y^n  toulsen, 
"  I  would  take  him,  I  would  cast  him."  It  is  pos- 
sible, however,  that  the  reading  may  be  cafsen. 

Second  person  : — the'n  nefgrusses  yskynne,  "  to 
heaven  thou  wouldst  ascend/5  O  156. 

Third  person  : — ny  garse  pelle  bewe,  "  he  would 
not  like  to  live  longer/5  0  738  ;  yn  tridyth  y'n  dre- 
afse,  "  in  three  days  he  would  rebuild  it/5  D  366. 

First  person  plural : — ny  ny'n  drosen  thy'so  gy, 
"we  would  not  have  brought  him  to  thee/5  D 
1976. 

Second  person  plural  :  — pan  cleuseugh  cous, 
"when  ye  heard  speak/5  D  1338,  (may  be  the 
Third  tense). 

Third  person  plural : — ny  wrussens  (grussens) 
ow  dystrewy,  "they  would  not  have  destroyed 
me/5  D  2777. 

Lhuyd  gives  a  tense  corresponding  with  this  in  form  : — 
guelzen,  guelzez,  guelze  :  guelzen,  guelze',  guelzenz,  or 

a  This  verb,  in  all  its  forms  beginning  with  a  vowel,  takes 
s,  or  its  equivalent  th,  after  the  conjunction  mar  and  some 
others.  In  this  it  is  like  the  vocalic  forms  of  the  verb  sub- 
stantive, as  well  as  in  its  frequent  accompaniment  of  yth. 


TENSES.  51 

guelazzenz :  he  makes  it  the  preter-pluperfect  tense. 
He  also  gives  a  subjunctive  future,  guylfym,  guylfydh, 
guylyf;  guylfon,  guelfo,  guylfym :  this  is  certainly 
one  of  the  compounds  of  the  verh  substantive,  of 
which  there  are  many  in  the  other  dialects  as  well  as 
in  Cornish  :  adnabod  in  Welsh  and  anavout  in  Armo- 
ric  are  instances.  I  think  I  find  clewfyf,  "  I  should 
feel,"  in  O  1351 ;  clewfo,  "that  he  may  hear,"  is  cer- 
tainly the  reading  of  D  3063.  The  Breton  makes  the 
conditional  infenn,  zenn,  and/ewre,  indiscriminately. 
A  Cornish  future  in  fyth  (wyth,  vyth)  is  often  found 
impersonal : — ty  a  wylfyth  (guylfyth],  "  thou  shalt 
see,"  O  1449;  gothfyth,  "I  shall  know,"  O  1400; 
me  a'n  carvyth,  "  I  will  love  him,"  D  1703;  ef  a'th 
carvyth,  "he  will  love  thee,"  D  1846;  ny  a'n  guyl- 
fyth, "we  shall  see  it,"  R53,  &c.  &c. 

V.  Tense.  First  person:  —  worto  pan  ivofynnyf 
(9°fynnyf>)  "°f  him  when  I  ask/'  D  1855;  bys 
may  thyllyf,  "  until  I  enter,"  D  726 ;  guel  ha 
gyllyf,  "the  best  that  I  can/'  D 3012. 

Second  person  : — me  a'th  conjor  may  leverry, 
"I  adjure  thee  that  thou  tell/'  D  1323  ;  gueyt 
may  tanfenny,  (danfenny],  "take  care  that  thou 
send/'  R  1630. 

Third  person :  — pyu  penagh  a  len  grysso 
(crysso),  "  whosoever  shall  faithfully  believe/'  R 
2466  ;  a  gutho  (cutho)  ol  an  nor  beys,  "  which 
shall  cover  all  the  face  of  the  earth/'  0  982  ;  kettyl 
y'n  geffo  (keffo)  a'n  bay,  "  when  he  shall  find  him, 
he  will  kiss  him/'  D  986. 

I  think  I  find  this  form  used  in  the  indicative :  —my  a's 
dyllo,  "I  will  send  her,"  O  1101.  We  have  also 
doro  as  a  future  in  D  1471 ;  but  as  we  find  doro  in 
the  imperative  mood  in  O  1904,  it  may  also  be  the 
First  tense.  It  is  possible  that  dyllo  may  be  in  the 
same  case,  but  I  have  no  evidence. 

First  person  plural : — mar  kefyn  den,   "  if  we 
D  2 


52  CORNISH   GRAMMAR. 

find  a  man,"  D  647  ;  pan  deffyn  ny,  "  when  we 
come,"  R  773- 

These  do  not  differ  in  form  from  the  First  tense,  and  we 
might  be  justified  in  looking  upon  the  distinction  of 
forms  here  as  not  going  beyond  the  singular  number. 
At  the  same  time  we  have  mar  kyf,  "if  he  finds," 
O  1103;  mar  a's  guel,  "if  he  sees  you,"  D  1003; 
and  many  other  instances,  where  there  is  a  different 
form  for  the  two  tenses. 

Second  person  plural : — del  y'm  fcyrreugh,  "  as 
ye  love  me,"  O  543  ;  pan  y'n  guyllough,  "  when 
you  shall  see  him,"  R  1912. 

Third  person  plural : — mar  a'n  kefons,  "  if  they 
find  him,"  D  582 ;  kyn  teffons,  "  though  they 
come,"  R  392 ;  may  teffons  omma,  "that  they 
come  here,"  0  2408. 

It  is  not  unfrequent  to  find  the  vowel  a  or  e  suf- 
fixed to  a  verb  in  the  second  person  singular  in  an 
interrogative  or  subjunctive  construction ;  the  fol- 
lowing examples  shew  the  practice  : — 

Interrogative. 

prag  ytheta,  why  goest  thou  ?  R  241. 
pendra  wreta,  what  doest  thou?  D  1185,  2981. 
pendra  vynta,  what  wilt  thou?  O  1311. 
pie  cleusta,  where  didst  thou  hear  ?  O  2642. 
pan  a  wrusta,  what  didst  thou  ?  D  2007. 
a  garsesta,  wouldst  thou  love  ?  D  2838. 
a  welte,  seest  thou  ?  D  2925. 
pendra  ny  vente,  why  wilt  thou  not  ?  D  1775. 
pefeste,  where  wast  thou  ?  O  467. 
fattel  thuthte,  how  didst  thou  come  ?  R  260. 
prag  y  tolste,  why  didst  thou  deceive  ?  O  302. 
a  alsesta  (galsesta],  wouldst  thou  be  able  ?  R  862. 

Subjunctive. 

mar  ny  wreta,  if  thou  dost  not,  R  1088. 
na  venta,  that  thou  wilt  not,  D  1293. 
pan  leverta,  since  thou  sayest,  D  2017. 


TENSES.  53 

a'n  guelesta,  if  thou  shouldst  see  him,  R  861. 

mar  a  cruste  (gruste]  leverel,  if  thou  didst  say,  D  1759- 

aban  golste,  since  thou  hearkenedst,  O  269. 

In  a  few  cases  we  find  similarly  the  vowel  a 
after  a  verb  in  the  first  person,  and  then  the  vowel 
is  preceded  by  m ;  as,  pendra  wrama,  what  shall  I 
do,  R  679,  D  856  ;  ellas  pan  fema  gynys,  alas  ! 
that  I  was  born !  R  2207  ;  aban  oma  dasserghys, 
since  I  am  risen,  R  2436  ;  hedre  vyma  ou  pygy> 
whilst  I  am  praying,  D  1013.  See  1. 1020. 

I  compare  this  to  the  addition  of  a  vowel  in  such 
expressions  as  ywe,  ose,  usy,  wruge,  &c.,  where 
some  kind  of  contingency  or  uncertainty  is  implied. 
We  must  for  this  suppose  that  the  final  m,  as  found 
in  Irish,  and  in  the  oldest  Welsh  glosses,  for  the  first 
person  singular,  is  restored,  as  well  as  the  st  for 
the  second  person  of  the  preterite,  in  cleusta,  feste, 
as  in  the  Welsh  ceraist.  In  the  second  person  of 
the  First  tense  the  dental  yet  remains,  though 
weakened  to  thd. 

§.  27.    Imperative.     Second    person  :  —  lavar, 

a  I  had  supposed  at  first  that  ma  and  ta  in  these  cases 
were  the  personal  pronouns  my  and  ty  in  an  altered  form ; 
but  the  observation  of  an  able  philological  friend  has  satisfied 
me  that  the  explanation  in  the  text  is  the  true  one.  The 
grammatical  value  of  the  final  vowel,  when  a  verb  follows 
certain  conjunctions,  such  as  pan  or  mar,  is  clear  from  the 
forms  gruge  and  duthe  instead  of  gruk  and  duth  in  O  423, 
D  524,  and  other  passages.  We  are  not  bound  to  consider 
ta,  in  such  words  as  venta  and  leverta,  as  necessarily  ad- 
ditional to  the  verb ;  I  look  at  venta  and  leverta  as  equiva- 
lent to  vennyth  +  a  and  leveryth  +  a  rather  than  to  venny  +  ta 
and  levery  +  ta ;  wrama,  too,  seems  to  be  more  probably 
wram  +  a  than  wraf+  ma.  There  does  not  appear  to  be  any 
reason  for  changing  my  and  ty  to  ma  and  ta,  whereas  the 
annexation  of  a  or  e  to  a  verb  in  a  phrase  denoting  contin- 
gency is  in  accordance  with  the  usage  of  the  language. 


54  CORNISH   GRAMMAR. 

"say,"   D  965;    treyl,   "turn,"   D  1155;    saf, 
"stand/'  O  65. 

Third  person:  —  guereses,  "let  him  help,"  O 
2781  ;  gylwes,  "let  him  call,"  0  2774;  guyskyns, 
"let  him  strike,"  D  2766;  tommans,  "let  him 
warm,"  D  833. 

First  person  plural  :—fystynyn,  "  let  us  hasten," 
D  645  ;  leveryn,  "  let  us  say,"  R  806  ;  guren,  "  let 
us  do,"  D  644. 

Second  person  plural  :  —  levereugh,  "  say  ye,"  D 
1109  ;  gueresough,  "help  ye,"  D  1143. 

Third  person  plural  :  —  kelmyns,  "  let  them  tie," 


§.28.  Infinitive:  —  care,  "to  love,"  0  1126,  D 
511;  leverel,  "  to  say,"  D  1759  ;  dybry,  "  to  eat," 
0  264;  danfon,  "to  send,"  D  1615;  keusel,  "to 
speak,"  01276;  kyrTias,  "to  fetch,"  02371; 
myras,  0  1399,  myres,  0  1412,  "to  see." 

Participle,  active  or  present.  Examples  are  nu- 
merous :  the  following  are  selected  for  the  purpose 
of  shewing  the  conversion  of  the  sonant  initial  :  — 
ou  corthye  (gorthye),  "worshipping,"  0  1616;  ou 
cul  (gul],  "  making,"  0  1556  ;  ow  kelwel  (gelwel), 
"  calling,"  O  2430  ;  ow  querthe  (guerthe),  "  sell- 
ing," D  1520;  ou  tos  (dos),  "coming,"  O  1651; 
ou  tysputye,  "  disputing,""  D  1628.  It  is  more  like 
a  neuter  participle  in  pan  us  gueyth  ou  tesehe, 
''  when  the  trees  are  drying,"  0  1  128. 

Participle,  passive  or  past  :  —  kyrys,  "  loved,"  R 
892;  lythys,  "killed,"  R  903;  offrynnys,  "offered," 
O  1327  ;  gorrys,  "  placed,"  R  430. 

§.  29.  Passives.    First  tense  :  —  aban  na  gefyr 


TENSES.  55 

(kefyr)  ken,  "  since  no  other  is  found/'  O  2503  ; 
pie  kefyr  dyu  grous  aral,  "  where  may  two  other 
crosses  be  found,"  D  2576,  compare  py  %efer 
pren,  D  2535  "»  del  redyer  in  lyes  le,  "  as  it  is  read 
in  many  places,"  D  1168 ;  mcCn  gueller  a  ver  ter- 
myn,  "  as  will  be  seen  in  a  short  time,"  D  1940. 

When  the  auxiliary  verb  is  passive,  the  passive 
sense  is  transferred  to  the  principal  verb  : — 

mar  ny  wrer  (gurer}y  wythe,  if  he  be  not  guarded,  R34I. 
mar  Jceller  (getter)  y  wythe,  if  he  can  be  kept,  D  3058. 
ny  yltyr  (ffyttyr)  re  the  worthe,  thou  canst  not  be  too  much 
honoured,  O  1852. 

Third  tense  : — Zeuss,  in  p.  525,  makes  a  passive 
in  as  analogous  to  the  old  Welsh  and  Armoric  at 
(now  id.  W.  and  ed,  Arm.).  His  examples  are — 
yn  della  y  re  thyskas,  "thus  they  have  been 
taught,"  P.  80.  3,  and  y  torras  (printed  dorras) 
an  veyn,  "the  stones  were  broken,"  P.  209.  4. 
The  old  translators  took  this  for  the  active  third 
person,  and  rendered  the  phrases  given  by  "  as 
them  others  taught,"  and  "  they  broke  the  stones ;" 
but  an  example  from  our  book  confirms  the  view  of 
Zeuss  :  pan  dorras  queth  an  tempel,  "  when  the 
vail  of  the  temple  was  rent,"  D  3088  :  we  may 
perhaps  cite  also  fethas  yu  cas,  "the  cause  was 
gained,"  R  579,  and  uthyk  yw  clewas  y  lef,  "loud 
was  heard  his  voice,"  R  2340. 

I  have  found  very  few  instances  of  a  passive  verb  used 
in  any  other  than  the  third  person.  In  O  i  and  D 
873,  we  have  y'm  gylwyr,  "  I  am  called;"  and  in  O 
1924,  may  haller  agas  cuthe,  "that  you  may  be 
covered :"  see  also  O  1852,  quoted  above.  These 
are  in  accordance  with  Welsh ;  but  it  is  difficult  to 
consider  them  precisely  passives,  because  the  pro- 
noun, which  ought  to  be  the  subject  of  the  verb  if 
passive,  is  in  the  state  especially  employed  when  it  is 
the  object.  The  view  of  Legonidec,  the  Breton  grtai- 


56  CORNISH   GRAMMAR. 

marian,  who  calls  these  verbs  Impersonate,  and  ren- 
ders them  by  the  pronoun  on,  as  ore  m'appelle,  appears 
the  most  suitable. 

Fourth  tense : — ha  re-na  galser  the  rey,  "  and 
those  might  have  been  given,"  D  537. 


It  may  be  as  well  to  give  a  complete  paradigm 
here,  and  the  verb  selected  is  care,  "to  love."" 
The  most  regular  forms  are  set  down,  but  others 
will  be  found  in  the  manuscript. 

First  tense  : — '  I  love1  or  '  shall  love.' 

caraf,  keryth,  car     :     keryn,  carough,  carons. 

Second  tense  : — '  I  was  loving '  or  '  would  love ' 
or  '  should  love.' 

caren,  cares,  care  or  cara     :     caren,  careugh, 
carens. 

Third  tense : — '  I  loved.' 

Jcerys,  kersys,  caras     :    kersyn,  carsough,  carsons 
or  carsans. 

Fourth  tense  : — '  I  had  loved '  or  '  would  have 
loved/ 
careen*  carses,  carse   :    carsen,  carseugh,  carsens. 

Fifth  tense  :— '  If  I  love.' 

fyryf>  kyry,  caro    :    kyryn,  kyreugh,  carons. 

Imperative  : — '  Love  thou.1 

car,  cares  or  carens     :     caren,  careugh,  carens. 
Infinitive  : — care,  "  to  love." 
Participles : — ou  care,  "  loving ;"  kyrys,  "  loved." 
Passive,   present    and    future  :  —  carer,   keryr, 
"  is,"  or  "  shall  be  loved.1' 

Conditional : — carser,  "  would  be  loved." 
Past : — caras,  "  was  loved." 


VERBS.  57 

As  a  general  rule,  whenever  a  question  is  asked, 
where  there  is  not  some  interrogative  pronoun  or 
adverb,  the  letter  a  is  put  at  the  beginning ;  as, 
a  ny  vynta  obeye,  "  wilt  thou  not  obey  ?"  0  1505. 
Sometimes  a  is  added  when  there  is  already  an 
interrogative  particle,  probably  to  fill  up  the  metre ; 
as,  a  pyth  yu  an  keth  deu-na,  "  what  is  that  same 
God?"  0  1485. 

A  negative  is  indicated  by  placing  m/2  or  na'2 
before  a  verb  ;  as, 

ny  thue  arte,  it  will  not  come  again,  O  1102. 
na  allaf  sparie,  that  I  cannot  spare,  O  946. 
na  wrello,  that  it  may  not  do,  O  1092. 

Na  is  usually  employed  with  imperatives  and  sub- 
junctives. 

§.  30.  Impersonal  Conjugation. 

The  Impersonal  conjugation  is  generally  em- 
ployed when  the  nominative  case  precedes  the 
verb  directly,  more  especially  when  the  nomina- 
tive is  a  personal  pronoun ;  the  subject  is  generally 
followed  by  the  particle  a,  and  the  initial  of  the 
verb  takes  the  second  form  ;  the  verb  is  always  in 
the  third  person  singular.  This  conjugation  is  so 
simple  that  it  will  be  required  merely  to  give  a  few 
examples  of  each  case,  to  enable  a  student  to  under- 
stand it  fully : — 

me  a  lever,  I  say,  R  1061. 

me  a  sorras,  I  was  angry,  D  1421. 

me  a  vynse  (mynse),  I  would  wish,  D  2 1 1 . 

me  re  behas  (pehas],  1  have  sinned,  O  249. 

ty  a  wor  (gor),  thou  wilt  know,  R  256. 

ty  a  tev),  thou  wilt  be  silent,  R  984. 

ty  a'n  nahas,  thou  deniedst  him,  R  1351. 

ty  ru'm  tullas,  thou  hast  deceived  me,  O  252. 

ty  a'n  guelse,  thou  wouldst  have  seen  him,  R  1382. 


58  CORNISH   GRAMMAR. 

ef  're  gollas,  he  has  lost,  O  420. 

ny  a  bys  (pys},  we  pray,  O  1072. 

ny  a  dryg  (tryg),  we  will  remain,  O  2112. 

ny  a  gafas  (cafas),  we  found,  R  1474. 

ny  a'n  recevas,  we  received  him,  R2339- 

ny  a  geusys  (keusys),  we  spoke,  R  1373. 

why  a  gyf  (kyf),  you  will  find,  D  176. 

y  a  nyg,  they  fly,  O  1068. 

y  afyth  (byth),  they  are,  R  1477. 

§.31.  Compound  Conjugation. 

The  Compound  conjugation  is  made  by  putting 
the  auxiliary  verb  "to  do"  before  the  infinitive 
mood,  as  "  I  do  love/'  "  he  does  know,"  &c.  in 
English.  Sometimes  the  comes  between  the  auxili- 
ary and  the  infinitive.  As  this  verb  is  irregular  it 
is  necessary  to  give  the  paradigm  :  — 

TO  DO. 

Infinitive  :  — 

gruthyl,  D  198,    61004;    guthyl,   61952;    guthul,  R 
2252  ;  or,  gul,  O  1174. 

First  tense  :  — 

ffuraf,  I  do,  O  1988.  guren,  we  do,  O  1146. 

gureth,  thou  dost,  R  459.         gureugh,  ye  do,  O  912. 
gura,  he  does,  1376.  gurons,  they  do,  D  2775. 

We  have  guregh,  D  814,  for  gureugh. 

Second  tense  :  — 
gurellyn,  I  was  doing,  or,  I  would  do,  O  445. 

gurelles,  R  445  \thou  wert  doing  or  wouidst  do. 
gures,  R45I      J 
gure,  R  6,  D  1309  ~] 
gurefe,  D  1316 

was  doin«  or  would  do' 


gurella,  D  1958 

gureva,  D  2882       J 

gurellen  we  were  doing  or  would  do,  O  183. 

gurelleugh,  ye  were  doing. 

gurellens,  they  were  doing. 


VERBS.  59 

Third  tense  :  — 

gurys  (?)  I  did. 
grussys,  thou  didst,  O  222. 
gruk,  he  did,  R  158. 
grussyn,  we  did. 

grussough,  R  40       "1        ,., 
>  ye  did. 
grussyugh,  O  2792  J  J 

grussons,  they  did,  O  337. 

When  a  conjunction  comes  before  the  third  person 
singular,  the  form  of  the  verb  is  generally  gruge, 
a  true  subjunctive  ;  as,  pan  wruge,  O  423,  2250, 


Fourth  tense  :  — 

grussen,  I  would  have  done,  O  163. 
grusses,  thou  wouldst  have  done,  O  156. 
grusse,  he  would  have  done,  O  152. 
grussyn,  we  would  have  done,  R  2624. 
grusseugh,  ye  would  have  done. 
grussens,  they  would  have  done. 

Fifth  tense  :  — 
guryllyf,  that  I  may  do,  O  531. 
gurylly,  that  thou  mayst  do,  O  1784. 
gurello,  that  he  may  do,  R  498. 
gurellen,  that  we  may  do,  O  1048. 
gurylleugh,  that  ye  may  do,  D  8n. 
grons,  that  they  may  do,  O  2034. 

Imperative  mood  :  — 

guren,  let  us  do,  O  1170. 
gura,  do  thou,  D  1957.  greugh,  do  ye,  R  2232. 

gurens,  O  1093,  -i 

T^  >•  let  him  do.    gurens,  let  them  do. 

grens,  D  371,     J 

Participle  active  :  — 
ou  cul,  doing,  O  1556. 

Participle  passive  :  — 
gurys,  O  431,  gures,  done,  O  988. 

Passive  :  — 
gurer,  it  is  done,  O  1936,  R34I. 


60  CORNISH   GRAMMAR. 

Note  that  gu  in  this  verb  is  equivalent  to  g  only :  it 
does  not  make  an  additional  syllable,  and  its  muta- 
tions are  those  of  g :  we  have  thus  russe,  O  152, 
and  wrussen,  O  163. 

The  following  example  will  suffice  to  shew  the 
manner  of  using  this  conjugation  : — 

First  tense : — 

daggrow  tyn  guraf  dyvere,  bitter  tears  I  shall  shed,  O  402. 
an  guel  guraf  the  drehy,  the  rods  I  will  cut,  O  1988. 
pan  wreth  agan  dysky,  when  thou  dost  teach  us,  D  36. 
an  gorhel  guren  dyscuthy,  the  ark  we  will  uncover,  01146. 
ny  wreugh  why  try  ye,  ye  shall  not  remain,  O  317. 
y  wrons  clamdere,  they  will  faint,  O  400. 

Impersonal : — 

y  cuthe  me  a  wra,  cover  him  I  will,  D  1376. 
my  a  ray  dybry,  I  will  eat  it,  O  248. 
hy  a  wra  aspye,  she  will  look,  O  1115. 
the  verkye  my  a  gura,  mark  thee  I  will,  O  602. 
ef  a  wra  dynythy,  he  shall  produce,  O  638. 
aga  gora  ty  a  wra,  put  them  thou  shall,  O  991. 
goef  a  ra  the  serry,  unhappy  he  who  angers  thee,  O  1016. 

This  is  the  most  ordinary  way  of  making  the  future 
tense  in  Cornish. 

Second  tense : — 

leverel  gura  na  wrella  dampnye,  do  say  that  he  condemn 

not,  D  1958. 

na  wrellen  dybbry,  that  we  should  not  eat,  O  183. 
an  temple  y  wre  terry,  the  temple  he  would  destroy,  D  1309. 
y  wrefe  y  threhevel,  he  would  rebuild  it,  D  1316. 

The  conditional  is  generally  made  by  this  tense. 

Third  tense : — 

pan  wrussys  cole,  that  thou  didst  hearken,  O  222. 
an  sarf  re  rule  ow  tholle,  the  serpent  hath  deceived  me, 
O  286. 

Imperative : — 
gura  ou  gorthyby,  answer  me,  O  301. 


VERBS.  61 

agan  cuthe  guren,  let  us  cover  ourselves,  O  254. 
greugh  y  tei\ne  mes  a'n  dour,  draw  him  out  of  the  water, 
R  2232. 

Infinitive  :  — 

dre  wul  trogh,  through  breaking,  O  298. 

§.32.  Passive  Verb,  made  by  the  Verb  substantive. 

It  is  much  more  usual  to  make  up  the  passive 
verb  by  the  verb  substantive,  as  is  done  in  most  of 
the  modern  languages  of  Europe,  than  to  use  the 
passive  inflection  as  explained  in  p.  45.  For  this 
purpose  the  paradigm  of  the  verb  substantive  is  re- 
quired: — 

Verb  substantive. 

The  verb  substantive  in  Cornish,  as  in  other 
Indo-Germanic  languages,  has  two  roots  ;  one  of 
these  appears  to  have  been  the  letter  s,  and  the 
other  was  the  consonant  b,  interchanging  with  f 
and  w.  Examples  of  the  first  in  Latin  and  English 
are  sum,  es,  est,  and  am,  art,  is  ;  of  the  second, 
fui,  fore,  and  be,  was.  The  Cornish,  in  some  of  its 
forms,  has  lost  the  initial  s,  but  it  regains  the  sibi- 
lant after  mar,  nyn,  and  some  other  words. 

First  division. 
Present  tense  :  — 

of,  I  am,  O  2049.  on,  we  are,  O  2024. 

os,  thou  art,  R  1822.  ough,  you  are,  R  196. 

yu,  he  is,  R  389.  yns,  O  1691, 


The  third  person  singular  is  varied  to  yw,  D  2952  ;  eu, 
O  2214;  ew,  O  2572.  All  receive  occasionally  an  ad- 
dition at  the  beginning,  becoming  assof,  yssof,  ythof, 
esof,  sof,  thof,  &c.  ;  in  the  first  three  forms  I  see  no 
difference  in  signification,  and  the  additions  in  such 
cases  are,  I  think,  only  variations  of  the  verbal  particles 


62  CORNISH   GRAMMAR. 

a  and  y.  Examples  are,  asson  whansek,  "  we  are  de- 
sirous," D  37  ;  huhel  ythos  ysethys,  "high  thou  art 
seated,"  D  93 ;  yn  ou  colon  asyw  bern,  "  in  my  heart 
is  sorrow,"  D  2932 ;  yssyw  hemma  trueth  bras,  "  this 
is  great  sorrow,"  03182.  I  now  believe  that  esof, 
esos,  &c.  are  merely  variations  of  these,  though  I  have 
rendered  them  usually  by  the  past  tense  :  see  D  931, 
2511,  R  1291.  Sof,  sos,  syu,  and  thof,  thos,  thyu,  &c. 
follow  certain  particles,  as  mar,  nyn,  &c. 
There  are  some  other  forms  for  the  present  tense ;  ma, 
"is,"  scarcely  differs  from  yu:  see  O  1316,  2561, 
2633,  R  2059.  Us  is  like  ma,  but  often  implies  'who  :' 
O  628,  1059,  D  1410,  1425,  R2o6oj  perhaps  eus  of 
R3i6  may  be  the  same  word.  We  have  usy  in  O 
2692.  Yma  signifies  'there  is/  O  410,  526,  775, 
R  400,  1216;  mons,  O  2091,  and  ymons,  O  1687, 
2084,  are  the  plurals  of  ma  and  yma. 

Imperfect  tense : — 

esen,  I  was,  O  213.  esen,  we  were,  R  1169,  2395. 

eses,  thou  wast,  O  900.       esough,  ye  were,  D  332,  R  2434. 
ese,  he  was,  O  1089.  ens,  they  were,  D  2681, 2694*. 

Preterite  tense : — 

o,  "he  was,"  O  706,  809,  R  1096,  2007. 

The  forms  oma,  "I  am,"  0755;  osa,  D  1324,  ose,  D 
1290,  oge,  O  1767,  "thou  art;"  ywe,  O  1822,  ugy, 
R  1636,  "  he  is  ;"  and  I  think,  ony,  "  we  are,"  O  59; 
all  these  are  either  interrogative,  or  else  they  imply 
contingencies  such  as  belong  to  the  subjunctive 
mood. 

Second  division, 
bones,  0  2299,  bos,  D  2494,  "to  be." 

First  tense : — 
bythaf,  D  1932  -. 
bethaf,  02in  } 

a  I  believe  the  real  paradigm  of  the  Present  tense  would 
be  of,  os,  yu :  on,  ough,  yns  ;  and  of  the  Imperfect,  en,  es,  e  .- 
en,  eugh,  ens;  but  both  tenses  affected  rather  to  lengthen 


VERBS.  63 

bethyth,  01465    lthoushaitbe. 
bythyth,  O  1510    J 
byth,  he  shall  be,  D  772. 
bethyn,  we  shall  be,  O  1655. 
bytheuyh,  you  shall  be,  D  767. 

bethens,  O  2307  i 

T    .7         r»  ^  they  shall  be. 

bythons,  03093  J         J 

As  there  is  a  present  tense  in  the  first  division,  this 
tense  is  always,  I  think,  future. 

Second  tense : — 

bef,  I  should  be,  &c.,  O  2193. 
bes,  thou  shouldst  be,  R  2442. 

bethe,  O  232      •> 

j,  *j.     r»        Q    r  ne  should  be. 
by  the,  D  1948  J 

fiera,  we  should  be,  R  2423. 
beuffh,  ye  should  be,  D  5,  28. 
bens,  they  should  be,  D  852. 

The  forms  as  well  as  the  signification  of  this  tense  are 
confounded  with  those  of  the  Fifth  tense,  and  even  of 
the  Fourth.  I  cannot  satisfy  myself  with  any  division 
of  them. 

Third  tense  : — 


buf,  buef,  I  was,  R  1540,  2150. 
bus,  thou  wast,  D  1999. 

bue,  O  880,  R  1443  -I 

7     /-»    f       T\  r  he  was. 

be,  02657,  D  1154  J 

buen,  we  were,  O  709,  R  1823. 
beugh,  buyh,  you  were,  R  192,  2243. 
bons,  they  were,  D  521. 

Fourth  tense  : — 

by  en,  I  should  be,  O  2120,  R  1942. 
byes,  thou  shouldst  be,  D  2683. 
bye,  he  should  be,  D  846,  1592. 
byen,  we  should  be, 

their  forms  in  actual  use.  In  a  similar  way  the  Greeks  added 
a  syllable  to  the  shorter  forms  of  their  verb  substantive, 
writing  elaQa  and  rjvda  for  «?  and  T/S.  Perhaps  the  Latin 
esto  and  estate  originated  in  a  like  principle. 


64  CORNISH   GRAMMAR. 

byeugh,  ye  should  be,  O  177. 
byens,  they  should  be. 

The  forms  gyfye,  "  would  take,"  R  966,  and  thotkye, 
"will"  or  "  would  go,"  R  2450,  seem  to  be  imitations 
of  this  tense. 

Fifth  tense  :— 

byf,  beyf,  I  may  or  shall  be,  D  847,  2008. 

by,  thou  mayst  be,  O  245,  2203. 

bo,  O  42,  R  90    i 

66,0396,1112  }  he  may  or  shall  be. 

ben,  been,  beyn,  we  may  be,  D  41,  O  1973,  2699. 

beugh,  you  may  be,  D  627. 

bons,  they  may  be,  D  844,  899,  1546. 

The  same  observation  as  is  made  above  at  the  close  of 
the  first  division  will  apply  here,  in  regard  to  the 
forms  byma,  D  1013,  befe,  O  2220,  befa,  D  905,  beva, 
D  690,  bova,  D  620,  buve,  O  864,  bythe,  O  1327,  byse, 
D  2908 ;  and  some  others.  Perhaps  such  additions 
are  sometimes  made  merely  to  fill  up  a  verse,  as  in 
bosa  for  bos,  D  1120. 


>-let  him  be. 


Imperative  : — 

byth,  be  thou,  O  1341,  2616. 

bethens,  D  2374 

bythens,  D  794 

bethon,  let  us  be, 

bethough,  be  ye,  D  879. 

bethens,  let  them  be, 

Throughout  the  second  division  of  this  verb  I  have 
made  the  initial  b  •  but  it  occurs  in  the  manuscript 
much  more  frequently  written  with  a  v  or  f  from  the 
influence  of  particles  requiring  a  mutation,  and  fre- 
quently where  I  see  no  reason  for  such  change ;  unless 
it  be  that  a  particle  is  implied  though  not  expressed, 
as  it  is,  I  believe,  the  case  in  Welsh. 

Examples  of  the  passive  verb  made  by  help  of 
the  verb  substantive  : — 

a'n  nef  of  danfenys,  from  heaven  I  am  sent,  O  1372. 

yth  os  ysethys,  thou  art  seated,  D  93. 

yu  gorhemmynnys  tky'n,  it  is  commanded  to  us,  O  1049. 


VERBS.  65 

buthys  on  ny,  we  are  drowned,  O  1705. 

yns  plynsys,  they  are  planted,  O  2092. 

bethaf  lethys,  1  shall  be  killed,  O  596. 

ny  fythyth  sylwys,  thou  shalt  not  be  saved,  O  1510. 

y  fethons  gorrys,  they  shall  be  put,  O  342. 

guynys  may  fuef,  where  I  was  pierced,  R  1540. 

helhys  warbarth  afuen,  we  were  driven  together,  O  709. 

y  fyen  lethys,  I  should  be  killed,  O  2120. 

may  fen  guythys,  that  we  may  be  preserved,  D  41. 

bos  desesys,  to  be  hurt,  D  97. 

bos  rewardyys,  to  be  rewarded,  O  2201. 

§.  33.  A  reflected  verb  is  made,  as  in  Welsh,  by 
prefixing  the  syllable  ym2  (em,  cm).  The  equiva- 
lent in  Armoric  is  en  em. 

Examples  are  frequent : — ymwanas,  "  he  stabbed 
himself,"  R.  2065,  from  the  root  guan ;  emwyskys, 
"he  smote  himself,"  R  2067,  root  guasJc ;  ym  den, 
"withdraw,"  01377,  root  ten ;  ny  y  lions  ymwe- 
res,  "  cannot  help  themselves,"  0  1420,  root  gue- 
res ;  mar  ny  wreth  ymamendye,  "if  thou  do  not 
amend  thyself,"  O  1526.  Embloth,  in  O  1661, 
meaning  "  to  fight,"  is  probably  from  the  verb 
lathe,  "  to  kill,"  something  like  the  French  se  bat- 
tre ;  though  we  have  emlathe  y  honan,  "to  kill 
himself,"  in  R  2073,  where  the  writer  perhaps 
added  the  pronoun  y  honan  to  avoid  the  ambiguity 
which  might  arise  from  the  use  of  emlathe,  mean- 
ing "  to  fight ;"  as  a  Frenchman  might  say,  il  s'est 
battu  lui-meme,  meaning  "he  has  beaten  himself," 
while  he  would  say,  il  s'est  battu,  when  he  wished 
to  be  understood,  "  he  fought." 


CORNISH   GRAMMAR. 


§.34.  IRREGULAR  VERBS. 

There  are  in  Cornish  some  verbs  irregular,  which 
are  generally  irregular  in  Welsh  and  Armoric  also. 
In  going  through  the  translation,  I  have  jotted 
down  a  good  many  words  which  were  at  the  time 
doubtful,  and  out  of  them  I  have  been  able  to  form 
the  following  incomplete  paradigms  :  they  might 
perhaps  be  completed  by  Welsh  and  Breton  ana- 
logy, and  no  doubt  several  additional  forms  may 
be  found,  if  the  Cornish  books  be  read  through  for 
the  purpose  ;  but  I  had  no  intention  of  venturing 
on  a  Grammar  when  the  work  was  begun,  and  have 
not  been  able  to  supply  the  deficiencies  since.  I 
have  consequently  only  incomplete  results  to  offer  ; 
but  in  the  case  of  every  word  set  down,  one  pass- 
age at  least  is  cited  in  which  it  occurs. 

TO  GIVE. 

Ry,  O  iSoij  2606;  rey,  D  537. 
First  tense  :  — 


rof,  I  give,  RSsy.  ren,  (we  give)  D  2406. 

reth,  O  1814   -i 

}thouSlvest' 


,  674          -i  . 

~  >  he  gives. 

,  O  2770  J 


re,  R  387,  674 

~ 
ree  or  rea,  O  2770 

Second  tense  :  — 
ren,  I  would  give(?)  O  2739. 

Third  tense  :  — 

res,  D  2495   -i 

-.  >   I  gave. 

rys,  O  320     J 

ryssys,  thou  gavest,  D  522. 

ros,  he  gave,  D  1384,  R  165.    rosons,  they  gave,  R  2601. 


IRREGULAR  VERBS.  67 

Fifth  tense  :— 

rollo,  that  he  may  give,  O  1823. 
rollons,  that  they  may  give,  O  40. 

Imperative : — 

ro,  give  thou,  O  2010,  R  83. 
roy,  let  him  give,  O  680,  0712. 
ren,  let  us  give,  D  1389. 
reugh,  give  ye,  D  1362. 

Participle  present : — 
ou  ry,  giving,  O  2316. 

Participle  past : — 
reys,  given,  D  1574. 


TO  BRING. 

Dry,  D  16,  273,  596. 

First  tense  :  — 
drow,  03121 


Second  tense  :  — 
dregha,  he  would  bring,  R  403. 

Third  tense  :  — 
dros,  he  brought,  O  in. 

Fourth  tense  :  — 
drosen,  we  would  have  brought,  D  1976. 

Imperative  :  — 

dro,  O  1947     v 

j        r\  r   bnng  thou. 

doro,  O  1904    J 

drens,  let  him  bring,  O  1933. 
dreugh,  bring  ye,  O  1066,  D  2329. 

Participle  past  :  — 
dreys,  brought,  D  2447,  R  2328. 


68  CORNISH  GRAMMAR. 

TO  COME. 

Dones,  0  791;  dos,  R  570. 
First  tense  :  — 

dueth,  R  1178  1   ., 

j  ,1.   r>  oo        r  thou  comest. 

duth,  R  882      J 

due,  it  comes,  D  2961,  R  2273. 
desons,  they  come,  D  1247. 

Second  tense  :  — 
dogha,  that  it  may  come,  D  2912. 

Third  tense  :  — 

duyth.  D  2022    1    T 

>  I  came. 
dueyth,  R  1661  J 

duthys,  R  2^68    "I     ., 

>    thou  earnest. 
dues,  (J  155          J 

,  R  2587    1     , 

0   '          he  came. 


,  R  234 
dutheugh,  ye  came,  R  193. 

We  have  aban  duthe,  "since  I  came,"  0517,524,  a 
subjunctive  mood,  as  in  gruge  .•  see  the  verb  gruthyl 
in  p.  59. 

Imperative  :  — 

dus,  O  2779    •> 
dues,  R  308    }   cometllou- 
dun,  let  us  come,  R23O5. 
dengh,  come  ye,  R  156,  1761. 

Participle  :  — 
des,  come,  D  352. 


TO  GO. 

Mones,  O  2030,  D  232  ;  mos,  O  1603. 
First  tense : — 
of,  I  go,  0339. 


IRREGULAR  VERBS.  69 

eth,  thou  goest,  O  2295,  R  851. 
a,  he  goes,  R2ip7. 
en,  we  go,  D  2997,  R  2391. 
wgh*  Ye  go,  02185. 

Generally,  ythaf,  ytheth,  &c. 

Second  tense : — 

een,  O  364      •> 

dlen,  02193  jlshouldg°- 

Third  tense  : — 

yth,  I  went,  O  260,  D  145. 
etheugh,  ye  went,  O  2086. 

Fifth  tense  :— 
ello,  (when)  he  shall  go,  R  1563. 

Imperative : — 

fee,  go  thou,  D  649. 
eugh,  go  ye,  R  179. 
ens,  let  them  go,  D  173,  R  2644. 


TO  BEAR  or  CARRY. 
Don,  D  2584,  R  1226,  1241;  degy,  D  2313. 

First  tense  :  — 
dek,  R  2235,  deg,  O  903,  2814,  he  shall  carry. 

Third  tense  :  — 
dug,  O  268,  duk,  O  2244,  R  2554,  he  carried. 

Fifth  tense  :— 
dogo,  that  he  may  carry, 


Imperative  :  — 
dok,  D  1272,  2616  -I 
dog,  O  1945,  2200    y  carry  thou. 
doga,  O  1298 

degyns,  let  him  carry,  O  32,  1052,  1591. 
degeuyh,  carry  ye,  O  2810,  R  2184. 


70  CORNISH  GRAMMAR. 

Participle  present : — 

ou  toon,  O  2820 
outon,0892 

Past:— 

/s,  carried,  O  1315. 


TO  KNOW. 

gothfos,  R468;  gothfes,  R  195;  gothvos,  62098;  govos, 
O  2102. 

Present  tense : — 

gon,  I  know,  R  1547. 
gor,  he  knows,  R  256. 
gothough,  ye  know,  R  2445. 
gothons,  they  know,  D  2774. 

Future  tense : — 

gothfythy,  thou  shalt  know,  R  2381. 
gothvyth,T)849-\   he  sball  know. 
govyth,  O  188     J 
gothfetheugJi,  ye  shall  know,  R  1574. 

These  tenses  are  separated  as  in  Welsh,  where  we  have 
gwn,  gwr,  as  a  present  tense, and  gwybydd,gwybyddwch, 
as  a  future.  They  are  analogous  to  the  two  divisions 
of  the  verb  substantive. 

Second  tense : — 
gothen,  I  did  know,  O  363. 
9otheS,-D848     lthoudidstknow< 
gothas,  D  2181  J 

guythen,  we  did  know,  D  1914. 

• 

Fourth  tense :  — 

gothfen,  (if)  we  had  known,  R  2542. 
gothfons,  (if)  they  had  known,  D  2776. 

Fifth  tense : — 

gothefaf,  (if)  I  know,  (?)  R  719. 
yothfo,  (if)  he  know,  O  190. 


IRREGULAR  VERBS.  71 

In  re  woffe,  "  may  he  know/1  O  530,  we  have  the 
fifth,  or  second  tense,  converted  into  an  imperative 
or  optative  by  the  verbal  particle  re.  See  p.  49. 
Woffe  \s,—gothfe. 


TO  HAVE. 

There  is  no  verb  in  the  Celtic  language  gene- 
rally corresponding  with  the  verb,  "  to  have ;"  in 
Cornish  as  in  Welsh,  the  deficiency  is  sometimes 
supplied  by  cafus,  "  to  take  or  find ;"  but  the 
more  usual  substitute  is  like  the  Latin  est  pro 
habeo.  We  find  thus  yma  thy'mmo  (est  mihi),  "  I 
have,"  D  494;  mar  a'm  be  (si  mihifuerit),  "if  I 
have,"  O  396  ;  na'm  byth  cres  (non  mihi  est  pax), 
"I  have  no  peace,"  Rii33.  In  most  cases  the 
verb  is  in  the  form  fyth,  the  first  tense  of  bos,  as  in 
my  a  fyth,  ty  a  fyth,  D  128,  "  I  shall  have,  thou 
shalt  have,"  &c.  The  Rev.  R.  Williams  suggests 
that  this  may  be  "  I  possess,"  &c.  from  a  root  meth, 
the  Welsh  meddu ;  and  this  would  be  probable,  the 
mutation  of  m  and  b  being  equally  forv;  but  the 
explanation  will  not  suffice  for  the  cases  where  the 
form  is  byth.  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  the  root 
is  always  bos ; — that  frequently  the  pronoun  in  the 
third  form  (§.  16.  p.  27)  was  added  to  that  in  the 
first  form,  as  in  why  a's  byth  (vos  vobis  erii),  "you 
shall  have,"  0  2586,  D  3075,  R  612,  672,  ny'm 
bes  (=ny'm  byth,  non  mihi  est},  "I  have  not," 
6171 ', — and  that  the  sentiment  of  the  real  value  of 
the  word  was  sometimes  lost,  so  that  ambyth  and 
asbyth  were  used  like  new  verbs,  as  in  why  asbe- 
theyth,  "  you  shall  have,"  D  33,  and  ny  ambyth,  "we 
shall  have,"  0  1714.  I  suppose  ny'm  bus,  R  1517, 
22 10,  "I  have  not,"  to  be  a  variant  spelling  of 


72  CORNISH   GRAMMAR. 

ny'm  byth; — na'm  bes,  O 1 884,  to  be  the  same,  with 
a  change  of  the  negative; — and  a'mbues,  D  2392, 
to  be  a'mbyth  (mihi  est) ; — as  bues,  01970,  and 
agas  bus,  R  2154,  "you  have,"  will  be  a's  byth. 
Am  been,  "  which  I  have,"  O  2613,  and  ma'm 
vethen,  "that  I  may  have,"  O  1958,  are  doubtful; 
my  a'n  byth,  "  I  will  have  it,"  D  j  187,  may  be  read 
vyth,  from  meth,  to  possess ;"  the  v  and  b  are  very 
much  alike  in  the  Manuscript.  I  cannot  explain  ny 
gen  byen  ny,  "we  should  not  have,"  of  R  1029, 
except  by  reading  bye  for  byen.  A  bew  of  D  2853, 
and  a's  pew,  D  2855,  2858,  are  probably  cognate 
with  the  Welsh  piau,  "  to  own ;"  as  also  ty  a  bew, 
"  thou  shalt  have,"  0  974,  which  I  have  translated 
incorrectly.  A  bywfy,  "  which  thou  possessest," 
0581,  and  a  bewe,  "which  he  possessed,"  O 
2393,  are  probably  from  the  same  verb. 

Another  substitute  for  the  verb  "to  have"  is 
found  in  ny's  teve,  O  2597,  D  508,  na's  teve, 
D  2647,  ny's  tevyth,  O  300,  399,  1808,  1816, 
a's  tefo,  D  788,  a's  tevyt,  O  2328.  In  all  these 
I  think  the  root  is  tefor  tev,  'to  grow'  or  'come/ 
with  the  pronoun  "  her"  or  "  them ;"  and  that 
if  the  meaning  were  "  he  shall  have,"  instead  of 
"she  or  they  shall  have,"  we  should  find  a'n  te- 
fyth;  but  this  does  not  occur.  In  my  note  to 
O  2597,  vol.  I.  p.  197,  the  conjecture  about  ceve 
appears  wrong,  and  the  version  is  far  from  literal : 
tus,  meaning  "men,"  is  always  considered  gram- 
matically as  a  feminine  singular,  and  s  of  ny's 
agrees  with  it ;  I  should  therefore  have  rendered, 
"  not  have  come  to  any  man."  The  curious  de- 
fective Armoric  verb  devout,  "  to  have,"  is  clearly 
analogous  to  that  under  consideration,  and  its  forms 
defe  and  deuz  or  devezo,  are  related  to  teve  and 
tevyth.  See  Legonidec's  Grammar,  p.  82. 


ADVERBS.  73 

ADVERBS,  PREPOSITIONS,  and  CON- 
JUNCTIONS. 

The  following  list  of  Adverbs,  Prepositions,  and 
Conjunctions  is  incomplete,  but  it  is  hoped  that  it 
will  be  found  useful ;  phrases  from  the  Ordinalia, 
exemplifying  the  use  of  each  particle,  are  added  in 
every  case. 

§.  35.  ADVERBS. 
coul,  cowal,  quite. 

marrow  cowal  ty  a  vyth,  killed  quite  thou  shalt  be,  O  2702. 
bones  an  temple  coul  wrys,  the  temple  to  be  quite  done, 
O  2581. 

kepar,  "  like,  as,"  takes  ha  with  a  substantive,  and 
del  with  a  verb. 

kepar  ha  kuen,  like  dogs,  R  172. 
kepar  ha  deu,  like  a  god,  O  290. 
kepar  ha  my,  like  me,  O  2350. 
kepar  del  ve,  as  it  was,  O  872. 
kepar  del  vynny,  as  thou  wilt,  0  1046. 

But  we  find 

kepar  hag  on,  as  we  are,  0  894. 
kepar  ha  me  a  welas,  as  I  saw,  R  1076. 

and  in  one  case, 
kepar  ha  del  leverys,  as  I  said,  D  2690. 

fattel2,  fatel,  fettel,  fettyl,  how. 

fattel  duthys  yn  ban,  how  didst  thou  come  up?  R  2568. 
ny  won  fatel  yl  wharfos,  I  know  not  how  it  can  be,  R  229. 
fettel  allaf  vy  crygy,  how  can  I  believe  ?  R  1423. 
prederys  peb  fettyl  otto  gorfenne,  let  all  think  how  it  can 
end,  O  228. 

prak,  prag,  pragh,  why. 

prak  y  wreta  thymmo  amme,  why  dost  thou  kiss   me? 

Diio5. 

prak  y's  guy  sky  th,  why  dost  thou  wear  it  ?  R  2549. 

E 


74  CORNISH   GRAMMAR. 

pragh  yth  hembrenkygk,  why  do  ye  lead  ?   D  204. 
prag  yth  yu  the  thyllas  ruth,  why  are  thy  garments  red  ? 
R  2567. 

•may a-,  maga0,  as. 

maga   whyn  (guyn)  avel  an  leth,  as  white   as  the   milk, 

u  3138- 

maga  tek  bythqueth  delfue,  as  fair  as  ever  he  was,  R  1659. 
maga  ta,  "as  well-,'*  is  used  in  the  sense  of  "also," 

as  in  English  : — 

den  ha  best  magata,  man  and  beast  also,  O  995. 
ha  war  the  treys  magata,  and  on  thy  feet  also,  D  488. 

nannia,  almost. 

namnag  of  pur  thai,  I  am  almost  quite  blind,  O  1056. 
namna'n  dallas,  almost  blinded  us,  R  42. 

ken,  else. 

ken  ef  a  wra  ou  shyndye,  else  he  will  spit  at  me,  O  2133. 

bo  ken  deaul  yw,  or  else  he  is  a  devil,  R  2104. 

When  the  sentence  is  negative,  we  find  nahen  (na  ken), 
although  the  negation  be  otherwise  expressed  ;  as 
nahen  na  grys,  think  not  otherwise,  R  2038.  See 
also  R  1126. 

ot,  ota,  otte,  wetta,  weUe,  see,  behold. 

ot  omma  meneth  huhel,  see  here  a  high  mountain,  D  125. 

ot  omme  an  guas,  see  here  the  fellow,  R  1803. 

ota  saw  bos,  see  the  load  of  food,  O  1053. 

otte  the  earn,  behold  thy  mother,  D  2928. 

ow  ottoma*,  see  with  me  (?)  R  2177. 

a  wetta  ny,  dost  thou  see  us  ?  D  2050. 

a  welte  theflogh,  seest  thou  thy  son  ?  D  2925. 

The  occurrence  of  these  last  forms  shews  the  derivation 
from  the  verb. 

yn  weth>  yn  weyth,  also. 

ha  nefyn  weth,  and  heaven  also,  D  290. 
map  deu  os  ha  den  yn  weyth,  son,  of  God  thou  art  and  man 
likewise,  D  278. 

a  See  the  note  to  O  882,  in  p.  207  of  the  Ordinalia,  vol.  II. 


ADVERBS.  75 

stesen,  perhaps. 

yn  ur-na  martesen,  in  that  hour  perhaps,  D  2870. 

See  the  note  to  this  passage  in  p.  213,  vol.  II.  Ordinalia. 

bytegyns,  bytygyns,  nevertheless. 

saw  bytygyns  cresough  why,  but  nevertheless  believe  ye, 

R  1300. 
saw  bytegyns  ragon  ny,  but  nevertheless  for  us,  R  980. 

See  also  R  1016. 

re2,  too  much. 

thotho  byny  vye  re,  for  him  never  would  it  be  too  much, 

R  2056. 

re  hyr,  too  long,  O  2548. 
re  got  (cot),  too  short,  O  2549. 

moghya,  moghye,  moghe,  most. 

neb  may  fe  moghya  geffys,  he  who  is  forgiven  most,  D  513. 
See  D  510,  514. 

ketella,  kettella,  so. 

nep  a  rella  yn  ketella,  whoever  has  done  so,  O  2240. 
yn  kettella  ny  a  vyn,  so  we  will,  D  243. 

mar-,  so. 

mar  tha  (da),  so  good,  O  912. 
mar  ger  (ker),  so  dear,  O  612. 

pe  feste  mar  bel  (pel),  where  hast  thou  been  so  long, 
0477. 

pwr2,  very. 

pur  tha  (da),  very  good,  O  2572. 
pur  thai  (dal),  very  blind,  O  1056. 
pur  wyr  (guyr),  very  true,  R  1004. 

bras,  very,  used  after  the  adjective. 

del  yu  ef  aallosek  bras,  as  he  is  very  powerful,  ()  1494. 
the  colon  yw  cales  bras,  thy  heart  is  very  hard,  0  1525. 

fest,  very,  also  after  the  adjective. 

wolcumfest,  very  welcome,  D  1207. 
yeynfest  yu  an  awel,  very  cold  is  the  weather,  D  1209. 
E  2 


76  CORNISH  GRAMMAR. 

Adverbs  of  place, 
oinma,  omme,  umma,  here. 

fatel  thutheugh  why  omma,  how  did  ye  come  here,  R  193. 
ot  omme  an  guas,  see  here  the  fellow,  R  1803. 
Adam  ottensy  umma,  Adam,  behold  her  here,  O  102. 

ena,  eno,  there. 

ena  yn  dour,  there  in  the  water,  R  2196. 

eno  ny  a'n  recevas,  there  we  received  him,  R  2339. 

pie  (=pa  le),  where. 

ny  won  pie  fe,  I  know  not  where  it  may  be,  O  1112. 
pie  me,  where  is  it  ?  R  46. 

a  ves,  outside. 
agy.  inside. 

aves  hag  agy,  without  and  within,  O  953. 

lies  (ves),  the  AVelsh  maes,  forms  also  the  following  ad- 
verbs : — 

the  ves,  away. 
yn  mes,  out. 

gallas  an  glow  the  ves,  the  rain  is  gone  away,  O  1097. 

da  yu  yn  mes  dyllo  bran,  it  is  good  to  send  out  a  crow, 
O 1099. 

alena,  alene,  thence. 
alemma,  hence. 

These  adverbs  are  really  phrases  meaning  "  from  that 
place,"  and  "  from  this  place,"  and  I  have  often  so 
divided  them,  though  they  are  not  distinguished  in 
that  way  in  the  Manuscript.  See  R  2138,  D  649, 
O 1945. 

aber,  aberth,  aberveth,  berth,  within. 

th'y  worre  aber  yn   beth,  to  put  him  within  the   grave 

R  2108. 

aberth  yn  beyth,  within  the  grave,  R  2083. 
dun  aberveth,  let  us  come  inside,  O  1062. 
berth  yn  bys-ma,  within  this  world,  R  860. 


ADVERBS.  77 

adro,  around. 

tra   ny   vyth  yn  pow  adro,  there  is  not  a  thing  in  the 

country  round,  O  189. 
o'n  beis  ol  adro,  of  the  world  all  around,  O  404. 

adrus,  adrues,  athwart,  across,  against. 

ftdrus  musury,  measure  athwart,  O  393. 

tresters  ty  a  pyn   adrus,  beams  thou  shall  nail   across, 

0964. 
kyn  whrylly  cous  adrues,  though  thou  do  speak  against  it, 

Ri792. 

a  hys,  a  lieys,  along. 

yroweth  a  hys,  lie  at  length,  O  653. 
groweth  a  keys,  lie  along,  O  1334. 

oges,  near. 

na  mos  oges  the'n  wet  hen,  nor  go  near  to  the  tree,  O  184. 
na  nyl  oges  nag  yn  pel,  not  one  near  nor  at  a  distance, 
O 1141. 

pel}  far. 

yma  moyses  pel  gyllys,  Moses  is  far  gone,  O  1682. 

a  rag,  in  front. 

war  an  brest  a  rag,  on  the  hreast  in  front,  O  2717. 

yn  rag,  forward,  forth. 

deuyh  yn  rag  ketep  onan,  come  forward  every  one,  O  2683. 
dus  yn  rag,  come  forth,  O  2403. 

yn  keryh,  on,  away. 

ke  yn  kergh  dywhans,  go  away  quickly,  R  116. 

a'n  beth  yn  kergh  gyllys,  gone  away  from  the  tomb,  R  809. 

yn  ban,  up. 

bynyfha  na  thue  yn  ban,  he  will  never  come  up,  R  2139. 
Adam  saf  yn  ban,  Adam,  stand  up,  O  65. 


78  CORNISH   GRAMMAR. 


Adverbs  of  time, 
ytho,  now,  then. 

ytho  pyth  yu  the  citsyl,  now  what  is  thy  advice  ?  R  25. 

ytho  thy'rn  lavar,  now  tell  me,  R  787. 

ytho  thy'nny  yth  hevel,  then  to  us  it  appears,  D  1489. 

This  appears  to  be  rather  the  conjunction  equivalent  to 
the  French  or,  than  the  true  adverb  of  time :  as  in  the 
Scripture  phrase,  "  Now  it  came  to  pass."  I  am  not 
quite  sure  that  this  is  not  the  ease  often  with  the  fol- 
lowing also. 

itmyn,  lenimyn,  lemman,  now. 

lemmyn  a  abesteleth,  now,  O  apostles  !    R  893. 

lemyn  sur  yth  yu   eun    hys,    now,  surely  it  is  the   right 

length,  O  2525. 

lemyn  ef  yu  agan  guas,  now  he  is  our  fellow,  O  910. 
lemman  warbarth  ow  jleghys,  now  together,  my  children, 

0307. 

yn  tor-ma,  in  this  time,  now. 

na  vo  marow  yn  tor-ma,  that  he  be  not  killed  now,  D  2446. 

agensow,  agynsow,  lately,  just  now. 

me  a'n  guelas  agynsow,  I  saw  him  recently,  R  896. 
agensow  my  a'n  guelas,  I  saw  him  recently,  R  9 1 1 . 

avar,  early. 
dewetheS)  late. 

ha  dewethes  hag  avar,  both  late  and  early,  O  629. 
ha  deug  avar,  and  come  early,  D  3239. 

by  nary,  betiary,  for  ever. 

yn  ponvotter  venary,  in  trouble  for  ever,  O  898. 

ny'th  ty  nahafbynary,  I  will  not  deny  thee  ever,  D  907. 

bynytha,  never  more. 

bynytha  ny  thue  yn  ban,  never  will  he  come  up,  R  2139. 
my  ny  vennaf  growethe  bynytha,  I  will  never  more   lie 
down,  O  625. 


ADVERBS.  79 

nefre,  neffre,  ever. 

nefre  y  fyth  avey,  ever  shall  be  enmity,  0314. 

nefre  thy  so  re  bo,  ever  be  it  on  thee,  O  46 1 . 

the  gous  a  bref  neffre,  thy  speech  proves  ever,  D  1408. 

avorow,  to-morrow. 

gueytyeugh   bones   avorow,    take   care   to    be   to-morrow, 

O  2299. 
deug  avar  avorow,  come  early  to-morrow,  D  3240. 

hytheu,  hythew,  to-day. 

na  moy  cous  thy'm  hythew,  no  more  talk  to  me  to-day, 

R 1940. 
wheth  bys  hythew,  yet  till  to-day,  R  1550. 

uthesempys,  dyssempys,  &c.,  immediately. 

athysempys  thu'm  tage,  immediately  to  choak  me,  D  1528. 

toth,  touth,  haste. 

This  word  appears  to  be  a  noun,  used  in  combination 

adverbially. 
ow  treyle  thotho   touth   da,  turning   from   him   speedily, 

(i.  e.  good  haste)  D  558. 

heeth  ou  bool  touth  ta,  reach  my  axe  quickly,  O  1001. 
Mo'm  gurek  ha'm  flehes  totta,  to  my  wife  and  children 

speedily,  O  1036.     (Totta  =  toth  ta.) 

cowyth  dun   toth  da,  companion,   let   us   come   quickly, 
D643- 

In  D  660  we  have  gans  touth  bras,  "  with  great  haste," 
shewing  that  the  word  is  a  substantive;  and  in  D  662 
toth  men,  of  the  same  meaning,  but  which  I  do  not 
understand. 

kettoth,  ketoth,  as  soon  as. 

kettoth  an  ger,  as  soon  as  the  word,  O  1908. 
kettoth  ha'n  ger,  as  soon  as  the  word,  R  1970. 
ketoth  ha'n  ger,  as  soon  as  the  word,  O  2272. 

arte,  again. 

gorryn  ef  yn  beth  arte,  let  us  put  him  into  the  grave  again, 

R  2100. 
ny'm  guelyth  arte,  thou  shalt  not  see  me  again,  O  244. 


80  CORNISH  GRAMMAR. 

solathyth,  solabrys,  some  time  ago. 

I  'find  this  compound  adverb  half  a  dozen  times ;  the 
root  is  clearly  sol,  and  the  addition  is  prys,  "  time," 
or  dyth,  "  day."  See  solabrys,  O  2322 ;  solabreys, 
O  2747;  sollabreys,  D  746;  solathyth,O  2612;  sola- 
theth,  R  1929,  and  sollathyth,  R  2380. 

kyns,  before. 

teke  ages  kyns  y  van,  fairer  than  it  stood  before,  D  348. 

y  fue  kyns  y  vos  gurys,  there  were,  before  it  was  done, 

D35o. 
warlergh,  afterwards. 

sou  me  warlergh  drehevel,  but  I,  risen  afterwards,  D  896. 

whare,  wharre,  soon. 

ha  whare  a,  and  will  soon  go,  O  642. 

may  tewe  an  tan  wharre  >  that  the  fire  may  light  soon,  D 1 22 1 . 

yn  makes  an  adverb  of  a  substantive  or  adjective ; 
sometimes  it  is  yn^,  sometimes  yn°,  and  sometimes 
no  change  is  made. 
yn  sur,  surely,  R  529. 
yn  teffry,  really,  R  565. 
yn  pur  deffry,  very  really,  D  300. 
yn  tyen,  entirely,  O  2589. 
yn  guyr,  truly,  O  2541. 
yn  len,  faithfully,  O  2608. 
yn  ta,  well,  O  2523. 

the  ierusalem  ynfen,  to  Jerusalem  quite,  O  1948. 
ynfen  guren  ny,  quite  let  us  do,  R  1242. 

[ynfen  =  to  the  end.] 
ynfelen,  as  a  felon,  O  2653. 
yn  kettep  guas,  every  fellow,  D  1350. 


§.  36.  PREPOSITIONS. 

a?,  of  or  from.  (See  §.  17,  p.  31.) 

luen  a  byte  (pyte),  full  of  pity,  O  2369. 

a  pup  squythens  y  sawye,  from  all  weariness  cure  him, 

D477- 

terrys  ol  a'y  le,  broken  all  from  its  place,  D  356. 


PREPOSITIONS.  81 

adre,  adres,  adro,  around. 

adres pow,  around  the  country,  R  1477. 
adre  thelhe,  around  them,  O  2097. 
adro  thotho,  around  it,  O  2101. 
adro  thethy,  around  it  (feminine),  O  778. 

agy,  agey,  within  ;  (followed  by  the.) 

agy  the  lyst,  in  the  lists,  R  223. 

ayy  the  ewhe  an  geyth,  within  the    evening  of  the  day. 

11275. 
agey  the'n  cyte,  within  the  city,  D  627. 

athyworth,  thy  worth,  theworth,  from. 

kyns  denas  athyworto,  before  withdrawing  from  it,  O  1401. 
my  a's  pren  thyworthys,  I  will  buy  it  of  thee,  D  1555. 
thyworth  ow  pen,  from  my  head,  D  1145. 
theworth  urry  re  thuk,  hast  taken  from  Uriah,  O  2244. 

athyrag,  in  presence  of. 

athyragough  me  a  pys,  before  you  I  pray,  D  1414. 
athyragof  my  re  weles,  I  have  seen  before  me,  O  1955. 

a-ugh,  over. 

nyg  a-ugh  lues  pow,  fly  over  many  countries,  O  1136. 

the  tacky' e  a-ugh  y  pen,  to  fasten  it  over  his  head,  D  2808. 

avel,  as,  like. 

avel  gos,  like  blood,  R  2500. 
avel  dewow,  like  gods,  O  178. 
avel  servant,  like  a  servant,  D  804. 

awos,  notwithstanding,  because  of. 

awos  ol  ow  yallos,  notwithstanding  all  my  power,  D  53. 
awos  the  then  na'y  vestry,  notwithstanding  thy  god  and  his 

power,  O  2738. 

ny  yl  bos  awos  an  beys,  it  cannot  be  for  the  world,  R  247  r . 
awos  deu,  for  God's  sake,  O  2564. 

bys,  as  far  as. 

bys  yn  ierusalem  ke,  unto  Jerusalem  go,  O  1928. 
bys  yn  y  chy,  even  to  his  house,  D  648. 
bys  dethfyn,  till  the  last  day,  D  724. 

E3 


82  CORNISH  GRAMMAR. 

dan,  under. 

yn  dan  gen,  under  the  chin,  O  2712. 

a  than  the  glok,  from  under  thy  cloak,  D  2682. 

yn  dan  an  chek,  under  the  kettle,  R  139. 

dre,  for,  by,  through.  (See  §.  17,  p.  31.) 

hy  a'n  gruk  dre  kerense,  she  did  it  for  love,  D  549. 
dre  owfynys,  through  my  pains,  D  45. 
dre  un  venen  wharvethys,  wrought  by  a  woman,  O  620. 
kentrow  dre  ow  thrys,  nails  through  my  feet,  R  2587. 

dres,  dreys,  over,  beyond. 

dres  dyfen  ou  arluth  ker,  beyond  the  prohibition  of  my  dear 

Lord,  O  172. 

ou;  mos  dres  pow,  going  over  the  country,  R  1511. 
dreys  dour  tyber,  through  the  river  Tiber,  R  2214. 

er,  by. 

er  an  treys,  by  the  feet,  R  2082. 
erthefyth,  on  thy  faith,  O  1441. 
er  an  thewen,  by  the  gods,  O  2651. 

Er  appears  to  be  identical  with  or  and  war  j  see  note  to 
D  202,  vol.  I.  p.  236. 

erbyn,  against,  towards.  (Lat.  obviam.} 

erbyn  a  laha,  against  law,  D  572. 
erbyn  haf,  against  summer,  031. 

Erbyn,  with  a  pronoun,  receives  the  pronoun  between 
er  and  byn,  making  the  usual  mutations ;  as  er  owfyn, 
R2573;  erybyn,D23$.  See  §.  n.  p.  18. 

gans,  with,  (accompanying.)     (See  §.  17,  p.  31.) 

gans  ow  tas,  with  my  father,  D  727. 

lanters  gans  golow,  lanterns  with  light,  D  609. 

gans,  by,  with,  (instrument,  manner,  cause,  agency.) 

gans  ow  deu  lagas  me  a  wel,  with  my  eyes  I  see,  D  410. 
gans  myyn  gureugh  hy  knoukye,  with  stones  strike  her, 
O  2694. 

gans  peder  ha  iowan  parys,  by  Peter  and  John  prepared, 

D  700. 
gans  touth  bras,  with  great  speed,  D  660. 


PREPOSITIONS.  83 

hep*-. 

y  a  treniyn  hep  thanger,  they  shall  pass  without  danger, 

O  1615. 

hep  thout,  without  doubt,  O  2668. 
hep  worfcn,  without  end,  D  1562. 

herwyth,  herweth,  according  to. 

herwyth  y  volungeth  ef,  according  to  his  will,  O  1320. 
herweth  the  grath,  according  to  thy  grace,  O  2253. 

kyns-,  before. 

kyns  pen  try  dyth,  before  the  end  of  three  days,  D  347. 
kyns  vyttyn,  before  morning,  O  1644. 

lemmyn,  except. 

nag  ens  deu  byth  lemnfyn  ef,  there  are  no  gods  except  him, 


mamas,  except. 

war  pep  ol  mamas  ty,  over  all  but  thee,  O  948. 

mes,  yn  mes,  out  of. 
greugh  y  tenne  mes  a'n  dour,  drag  him  out  of  the  water, 

R  2232. 
tynneugh  yn  mes  agan  temple,  drag  out  of  our  temple, 

O  2693. 
mar  seugh  mes  a  dre,  if  you  go  from  home,  O  2185. 

rag,  rak,  for,  because  of.  (See  §.  17,  p.  30.) 
rak  eun  kerenge,  for  real  love,  D  483. 
rak  ow  anclythyas,  for  my  burial,  D  548. 
rak  the  servys,  for  thy  service,  D  613. 
teweugh  rak  meth,  silence  for  shame,  R  1495. 
yw  ou  colon  trogh  rag  agas  cows,  my  heart  is  broken  be- 

cause of  your  talk,  R  1365. 
rag  the  offryn  ker,  because  of  thy  dear  offering,  O  567. 

rag,  from. 

guythys  rak  an  bylen,  preserved  from  the  evil  one,  D  41. 
guyth  vy  rak  an  ioul,  preserve  me  from  the  devil,  R  1564. 
guythe  ef  rag  tarofvan,  preserve  it  from  fantoms,  O  2364. 

a  rak,  before,  in  presence  of. 

a  rak  pilat,  before  Pilate,  R  2593. 

a  rak  agan  lagasow,  before  our  eyes,  R  1492. 


84  CORNISH  GRAMMAR. 

re,  by,  (swearing.) 

re  iovyn,  by  Jove,  O  1532. 

re  synt  iovyn,  by  Saint  Jove,  R  349. 

re  deu  an  tas,  by  God  the  Father,  O  1919. 

ryp,  beside,  near. 

ryp  ihesu  cryst  gorrys,  put  beside  Jesus  Christ,  R  266. 
me  a  gosk  ryp  y  pen,  I  will  sleep  by  his  head,  R  418. 
In  the  line  yn  plas  us  omma  rybon,   D  460,  we   have 
clearly  the  preposition  ryp  joined  to  the  pronoun  of 
the  ist  pers.  plural :  rybon,  "  beside  us." 

saw,  except,  without. 

saw  y  ober  ha'y  thyskes,  without  his  work  and  his  teaching, 

D57- 

ny  hynwys  thy'm  saw  pedar,  he  named  none  to  me  except 

Peter,  R  916. 

tan,  by. 

tan  oufeth,  on  my  faith,  O  2534. 
(Not  found  elsewhere.) 

the,  to.  (See  §.  17,  p.  31.) 

thyworth,  theworth,  from.     See  athyworth. 

trogha,  troha,  towards. 
stop  an  wethen  trogha'n  dor,  bend  the  tree  towards  the 

ground,  O  201. 

fystyn  trogha  par athys,  hasten  towards  Paradise,  O  332. 
troha  ken  pow,  towards  another  country,  O  344. 
fystynyuyh  troha  'n  daras,  hasten  towards  the  door,  O  349. 

war12,  upon.    (See  §.  17,  p.  31.) 

war  veneth  (meneth),  upon  a  mountain,  O  1281. 
war  beyn  (peyn)  cregy,  on  pain  of  hanging,  O  2280. 
war  thu  (du),  to  God,  D  40,  357. 
•war  tyr  veneges,  on  blessed  ground,  O  1407. 

warlergh,  after,  according  to,  (receives  a  governed 
pronoun  in  the  middle,  like  erbyn.) 

warlergh  the  gussullyow,  after  thy  counsels,  O  2269. 
war  the  lergh  owth  ymwethe,  craving  after  thee,  R  1170. 
war  aga  lergh  fy sty nyn,  after  them  let  us  hasten,  O  1641. 


PREPOSITIONS.  85 

worth,  at,  to,  against.  (See  §.  17^.32.) 

the  tros  ivorth  men,  thy  foot  against  a  stone,  D  98. 
worth  an  trey  tor,  to  the  traitor,  D  1449. 

wose,  woge,  after. 

sythyn  wose  hemma,  a  week  after  this,  O  1026. 
woge  soper,  after  supper,  D  834. 

wos°.   (Not  found  elsewhere.) 
wostalleth  na  wosteweth,  at  first,  nor  at  last,  O  2762. 

This  may  be  equivalent  to  war  +  dalleth,  and  war  +  de- 
weth  ;  compare  wor  tyweth,  D  1818. 

yn,  in,  into.  (See  §.  1 7,  p.  30.) 

nyn  sa  yn  agas  ganow,  it  goes   not  into   your  mouth, 

01913. 

yn  ou  enef,  in  my  soul,  D  1022. 
yn  pup  termyn,  at  all  times,  D  1040. 

yntre,  ynter,  among,  between. 

yntre  y  thyns  (dyns)  ha'y  davas  (tavas),  between  his  teeth 

and  his  tongue,  O  826. 
yntre  an  mor  ha'n  tyryow,  between  the  sea  and  the  lands, 

O  26. 

yntre  and  ynter  take  th  before  a  pronoun,  like  the  pre- 
positions enumerated  in  §.  17. 
yntretho  ha'y  gowethe,  between  him  and  his  companions* 

DJ288. 
yntrethe  gasaf  ow  ras,  among  them  I  leave   my   grace, 

R 1584. 

yntrethon,  between  us,  O  936. 
ol  ores  yntrethough,  all  peace  among  you,  R  2433. 
me  a  thybarth  ynterthoyh,  I  will  divide  between  ye,  D  2325. 


CORNISH  GRAMMAR. 


§.  37.    CONJUNCTIONS. 

aban,  since,  because. 

aban  ywe  yh  della,  since  it  is  so,  D  1953. 

aban  golste  worty  hy,  because  thou  hearkenedst  to  her, 

0269. 
aban  na  vynta  cresy,  since  thou  wilt  not  believe,  O  241. 

ages,  es,  ys,  eys,  than. 

teke  ages  kyns,  fairer  than  before,  D  348. 

tekke  alter  es  del  us  genen,  a  fairer  altar  than  such  as  is 
with  us,  O  1179. 

yueth  ys  ky,  worse  than  a  dog,  R  2026. 

hacre  mernans  eys  emlathe,  a  more  cruel  death  than  self- 
killing,  R  2073. 

Es  and  ages  take  suffixed  pronouns,  as  do  the  prepo- 
sitions enumerated  in  §.  17. 
ken  deu  agesos,  another  God  than  thou,  R  2477. 
ken  arluth  agesso  ef,  another  Lord  than  him,  O  1789. 
y  fynnaf  vy  mos  pella  esough,  I  will  go  further  than  you, 

R 1299. 
ken  agesough,  other  than  you,  O  2357. 

bo,  or. 

bo  ken  deaul  yw,  or  else  he  is  a  devil,  R  2104. 

drefen,  because. 

drefen  na  fynnyth  crygy,  because  thou  wilt  not  believe, 

Rno6. 
drefen  un  ivyth  the  henwel,  because  of  once  calling  on  thee, 

O  2724. 

erna,  until. 

erna  wrello  tremene,  until  she  be  dead,  O  2695. 
erna'n  prenny,  until  thou  pay  for  it,  O  2653. 

ha,  and. 

map  ha  tas,  Son  and  Father,  D  297. 

ou  tus  hammy  (ha  my),  my  people  and  me,  O  971. 

Takes  g  before  a  vowel,  as,  hag  yn  tyr,  and  in  the  earth, 
O  27 ;  hag  ef  ha  kemmys,  both  he  and  as  many  as, 
R 1760. 


CONJUNCTIONS.  87 

re,  whilst,  as  long  as. 

hedre  vyyn  ou  predery,  whilst  I  am  considering,  O  2035. 
hedre  veyn  beu,  as  long  as  I  am  living,  D  115. 
hedre  vy  may  fo  anken,  until  it  be  that  death  is,  O  276. 
hedre  vo  yn  (he  herwyth,  as  long  as  it  is  in  thy  power, 

O  1464. 

hedre  vyuyh  byu,  as  long  as  ye  are  living,  O  2349. 
hedre  vyns  y  yn  ou  gulas,  as  long  as  they  shall  be  in  my 

kingdom,  O  1503. 

/,  ken,  though. 
kynfe  terrys,  though  it  be  broken,  D  354. 
ken  nag  of  guy  w,  though  I  am  not  worthy,  D  481. 
kyn  wrello  son,  though  he  should  make  a  noise,  R  2016. 

kettel,  when. 

kettel  tersys  an  bar  a,  when  thou  didst  break  the  bread, 

Ri3i8. 
kettel  thueth   er   agan  pyn,  when  he  came  to  meet  us, 


lemmyn,  but. 

nyn  syu  gulan  lemmyn  mostys,  it  is  not  clean  but  dirty, 


lemmyn  yn  tan  bos  cuthys,  but  in  fire  to  be  covered,  R  2326. 

in<i,  that. 

pys  e  ma'n  danfonno,  pray  him  that  he  send  him,  R  1620. 
ma  na  wothfo  gorthyby,  that  he  may  not  know  how  to  re- 

ply, D  1660. 
ma  gas  bo,  that  it  be  to  you  (that  you  may  have),  D  226. 

mar",  mara0,  if. 

mar  qureugh  (gureugh]  ou  wylas,  if  ye  do  seek  me,  D  nil. 

mar  a'n  pesaf  ef,  if  I  pray  him,  D  1  166. 

mara  keusysfalsury,  if  I  spoke  falsehood,  D  1271. 

mara  pet  he  (bethe)  lei  iuggys,  if  he  be  fairly  judged,  D  1344. 

mara  qureta  (gureta),  if  thou  dost,  D  1385. 

Before  the  verb  substantive,  and  some  others  with  an 
initial  vowel,  mar  takes  s  or  th,  which  apparently  had 
nearly  the  same  sound;  (see  §.4.  p.  8);  as  mar  syu, 
"if  he  is,"  R  520;  mar  sos,  "if  thou  art,"  D  60  ; 
mar  seth,  "if  thou  go,"  O  2652  ;  mar  seugh,  "if  you 
go,"  O  2185  ;  mar  thes,  "  if  thou  be,"  O  608.  Mara 


88  CORNISH  GRAMMAR. 

is  frequently  used  in  this  case :  mara  syw,  "  if  it  be," 
O  2563,  R828 ;  mara  setke,  "  if  he  he  gone,"  R  538. 
The  Manuscript  is  not  constant  in  dividing  the  words, 
and  I  have  also  been  very  uncertain  about  it  in  the 
text :  I  should  now  be  inclined  to  join  the  *  or  th  to 
the  verb,  considering  it,  in  the  verb-substantive  at 
least,  to  be  a  restoration  of  the  original  sibilant.  See 

P-93- 

Perhaps  we  should  always  write  mar  a  divided;  the 
division  is   complete  in  R  2542,  two  words   inter- 
vening :  mar  fur  torment  a  cothfen,  "if  we  had  known 
the  cruel  torment." 
marnes,  mars,  unless. 

marnes  drethos  vernona,  unless  by  thee  Veronica,  R  2220. 
mars  dre  mur  our,  unless  by  much  gold,  R  1964. 
mars  cryst  a  weres,  unless  Christ  helps,  R  2132. 
mas  in  R  47  and  O  1504  may  be  put  for  mars. 

may,  that. 

may  tewe  an  tan  wharre,  that  the  fire  may  kindle  soon, 

Dl22I. 

mes,  but. 

mes  mara  keusys  yn  lei,  but  if  I  have  spoken  truly,  D  1273. 

pan2,  when,  since. 

han  vyrwyf  (myrwyf),  when  I  die,  D  227. 
pan  cam  worthybys,  when  he  answered  rudely,  D  1403. 
pan  theugh  marfreth,  when  you  come  so  bold,  D  ni5.a 
Pan  appears  to  be  used  also  in  the  way  of  deprecation, 

as, 

govy  pan  y'n  gruga,  wo  is  me  that  I  did  it !  D  1434. 
ellas  vyth  pan  ruk  cole,  alas !  that  I  ever  listened,  O  626. 

rag,  rak,  raah,  for,  because. 

rag  pur  tha  ew,  for  it  is  very  good,  O  2572. 

ragh  map  an  pla,  for  the  son  of  evil,  D  10. 

rak  the  vones  dyvytfiys,  for  that  thou  art  come,  D  280. 

py,  or. 

pynak  vo  lettrys  py  lek,  whether  he  be  lettered  or  lay, 
D68i. 

a  This  is  probably  a  present  tense  of  the  verb  dones,  '  to 
come.' 


CONSTRUCTION.  89 

yn  nep  bos  tewl  py  yn  sorn,  in  some  hush,  hole,  or  in  a 

corner,  R  539. 
nep  a  serf  py  a  tlieber,  he  who  serves,  or  who  eats,  D  799. 

sau,  saw,  but. 

sau  dystogh  hy  a  vyth  due,  but  soon  it  will  be  done,  O  2178. 
sau  an  ethyn  byneges,  but  the  blessed  birds,  O  1067. 
saw  bytegyns  ragon  ny,  but  nevertheless  for  us,  R  980. 


§.  38.  CONSTRUCTION. 

The  few  observations  collected  while  making  the 
version  of  the  Dramas  are  too  desultory  to  admit  of 
the  name  of  Syntax ;  much  of  what  might  pass 
under  that  name  is  incorporated  with  the  preceding- 
pages,  and  the  few  remaining  observations  are  set 
down  here  without  much  pretension  to  system.  It 
may  be  observed  once  for  all,  that  the  exigencies  of 
metre  have  apparently  compelled  the  author  of 
these  Dramatic  Writings  to  such  inversions  and  ir- 
regularities as  are  met  with  in  all  earlier  attempts 
at  metrical  composition. 

When  a  transitive  verb  governs  an  accusative 
substantive,  the  pronoun  corresponding  with  the 
substantive  is  often  added,  as,  me  a's  ygor  an  dar- 
asoWy  R  638,  literally,  "  I  will  open  them  the 
doors;"  an  mernans  me  a'n  kymmer,  0  1332,  "  the 
death  I  will  take  it ;"  ha  henna  ny  a'n  guylvyth, 
R  53,  fi  and  that  we  shall  see  it ;"  an  gorhel  my 
a'n  gura,  0  966,  "  the  ship  I  will  make  it." 

When  a  verb  which  has  a  plural  subject  comes 
before  the  subject,  it  does  not  agree  with  it,  but  is 
put  in  the  singular  :  as,  y  fifth  agati  enefow,  "  our 
souls  shall  be,"  D  75 ;  re'n  kergho  an  dewolow, 
"may  the  devils  fetch  him,"  R  2277. 


90  CORNISH   GRAMMAR. 

When  a  verb  in  the  infinitive  mood  follows  a 
verb  implying  motion,  it  is  commonly  preceded  by 
the,  as  in  English  by  the  corresponding  particle 
"to:"  as, 

dun  ny  the  veras,  let  us  come  to  see,  O  2325. 
dun  the  gyrhas,  let  us  come  to  fetch,  O  2371. 
mos  the  vyras,  to  go  to  see,  D  1399. 
eugh  th'y  drehy,  go  to  cut  it,  O  2505. 
deu  cCm  danfonas  the  wofyn,  God  sent  me  to  ask,  O  1431. 
But  we  have  also  ray,  as  in  dun  rag  offrynna,  "  let  us 
come  to  offer,"  O  1307.     Dun,  'come,'  in  these  cases  is 
like  the  English  '  come  along,'  where  other  languages 
use  '  go.' 

When  the  infinitive  expresses  the  object  or  aim 
of  a  verb  going  before,  it  is  preceded  by  rag,  corre- 
sponding with  the  French  pour,  and  our  own  vulgar 
"for:"  as, 

gorre  an  prynner  rag  lesky   an   sacryfys,   put  the  wood 

(for)  to  burn  the  sacrifice,  O  1324. 
lafurye  a  wra  rak  dry  den,  he  will  labour  to  bring  man, 

Di6. 

ny  a  vyn  mos  rak  y  worthe,  we  will  go  to  worship  him, 
D236, 

After  an  auxiliary  verb  the  infinitive  comes  im- 
mediately, without  any  preposition :  as, 

mar  mynnyth  hy  dystrewy,  if  thou  wilt  destroy  her,  O  2675. 
ny  vennaf  cafus  le,  I  will  not  take  less,  D  594. 
na  allaf  kerthes,  nor  can  I  go  on,  O  374. 
ma  yllyn  mos,  that  we  may  go,  D  708. 

But  we  have  also 
mennaf  the  terry,  I  will  break,  D  485. 

and  sometimes  there  is  no  preposition  where  we 
should  expect  to  find  the ;  as, 

me  a'th  pys  agan  sawye,  I  pray  thee  to  save  us,  D  272. 

Instead  of  using  the  conjunction  "that"  with 
another  verb  in  the  indicative  mood,  as  in  most 
European  languages,  it  is  usual  to  put  the  second 


CONSTRUCTION.  91 

verb  in  the  infinitive,  preceded  by  the  persona]  pro- 
noun, as  is  common  in  Latin  : 

ha  cons  ef  the  thasserhy,  and  say  that  he  has  risen,  R  24. 
marth  a'm  hues  ty  the  leverel  folneth,  it  is  a  wonder  to,  me 

that  thou  shouldst  speak  folly,  R  961. 
nyn  sa  y'm  colon  why  the  geusel,  it  goes  not  into  my  heart, 

(i.e.  I  do  not  believe)  that  you  have  spoken,  R  1481. 
del  won  the  bos,  as  I  know  thee  to  be,  R  859. 

The  subjunctive  mood  is  used  in  its  natural  signi- 
fication :  that  is  to  say,  whenever  the  verb  expresses 
an  uncertainty,  or  expectation,  or  contingency  of 
any  sort,  without  regard  to  any  conjunction  pre- 
ceding ;  thus  Mary  Magdalene  says,  ken  nag  of 
guyw,  "though  I  am  not  worthy,"  D  481,  in  the 
indicative  mood,  acknowledging  her  own  unworthi- 
ness  ;  but  the  gaoler  directs  his  servant  to  put 
Pilate  in  prison,  kyn  wrello  son,  "  though  he  may 
make  a  noise,"  R  2016;  and  this  notwithstanding 
both  verbs  are  preceded  by  the  same  conjunction :  the 
French  language  would  use  the  subjunctive  in  both 
cases  ;  quoiqueje  sois^  and  quoiqu'ilfasse.  So  del 
os  luen  a  ras,  "  as  thou  art  full  of  grace,"  0  1 06, 
in  the  indicative,  expressing  a  full  belief,  and  del 
y'm  kyrry,  "as  thou  lovest  me,"  0  537,  in  the  sub- 
junctive, where  a  doubt  is  implied.  This  is  however 
not  always  observed;  the  Cornish  writers  were 
hardly  skilled  enough  in  composition  to  be  always 
accurately  guided,  and  rhyme  or  metre  was  fre- 
quently exigent.  The  following  examples  of  the 
subjunctive  mood  will  suffice  to  give  an  insight  into 
its  use. 

er  na  wrello  tremene,  (beat  her)  until  she  be  dead,  O  2695. 

er  na'n  prenny,  (thou  shalt  not  get  away)  until  thou  pay  for 
it,  O  2653. 

kynfe  an  temple  dyswrys,  though  the  temple  were  destroy- 
ed, D  365. 


92  CORNISH   GRAMMAR. 

may  hyllyfy  lathe,  (give  me  a  sword)  that  I  may  kill  him, 

R 1969. 
pys  e  thy'm  ma'n  danfonno,  pray  him  that  he  send  him  to 

me,  R  1620. 

ma  na  wothfo,  that  he  shall  not  know,  D  1660. 
dre  clethe  nep  a  vewo,  he  who  lives  by  the  sword,  D  1 158. 


NOTE. 

Since  the  preceding  sheets  were  printed,  the  following  forms 
have  been  noticed  in  the  irregular  verbs  : — 

In  p.  68.     ist  tense,     deugh,  ye  come,  D  1115. 

dethons,  they  come,  Pas.  258,  i. 
Imperative,     deug,  come  ye,  R  3239. 
In  p.  70.     2d  tense,    gothyen,  I  knew,  R  2544,  2559. 

gothye,  he  knew,  Pas.  101,  2. 
? got  ham,  Pas.  245.  3. 
4th  tense,    gothfes,  thou  knewest.  O  151. 
5th  tense,    gothfy,  thou  shall  know,  D  1042. 
Participle,    gothvethys,  known,  O  1520. 
In  p.  63,  apparently  in  the  4th  tense  of  the  verb  sub- 
stantive,    beyn,  D  115. 

byyn,  O  2035.  qu.  plural. 
byugh,  O  2349. 
byns,  O  1503. 


93 


The  following  forms  of  Irregular  Verbs  may  be 
added  to  the  preceding ;  they  have  been  found 
since  the  others  were  printed. 

dora,  I  should  bring,  R  1789. 
drew,  bring  ye,  D  178. 
drewh,  bring  ye,  R  1776. 
druth,  brought,  R  2492. 
druyth,  brought,  O  1621. 
dres,  brought,  D  1569.' 
dues,  to  come,  R  647. 
deve,  I  come,  R  2620. 
de,  will  come,  O  2431,  D  541. 
dy,  will  come,  D  1654. 
dufe,  (if)  he  come,  R  7. 
den,  let  us  come,  0  2543. 
deugh,  ye  come,  D  1115. 
ditegh,  come  ye,  R  323. 
dens,  let  them  come,  D  694. 
dothe,  may  come,  O  1744. 
dothye,1  R  2450. 
ow  tos,  coming,  D  370,  R  145. 
eth,  he  went,  3rd  tense,  R  835. 
ytty,  thou  shalt  go,  5th  tense,  R  2452. 
ou  mos,  going,  R  2298. 
gothyen,  I  knew,  2nd  tense,  R  2544,  2559. 
gothyan,  I  knew,  2nd  tense,  R  2614. 
gothfen,  I  should  know,  4th  tense,  D  1287. 
gothjye,  he  would  know,  4th  tense,  D  490. 
gothfough,  ye  should  know,  4th  tense,  D  2156. 
gother,  the  passive,  O  2332. 
guren,  I  would  do,  2nd  tense,  D  1622,  R  1894. 
gurefa,  he  may  do,  2nd  tense,  R  2473. 
p 


94 

gurell&ugh,  you  may  do,  2nd  tense,  D  2196. 
grussyn,  we  did,  3rd  tense,  R  1341. 
gruga  (that)  I  did,  3rd  tense,  D  1434. 

When  the  present  participle  governs  a  pronoun,  it  is 
made  by  orth  or  worth,  instead  of  ou  or  ow  :  as  ymons 
y  orth  y  sywe,  they  are  following  him,  0  1688  ;  y these 
gans  Ihesu  worth  y  servye,  he  was  with  Jesus  serving 
him,  D  1406.  See  also  D  342,  442,  1141,  1333,  2994. 


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